The Senior Times Nov 2008 digital version

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NOVEMBER 2008

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VOL. XXIII N O 2

INSIDE

Brothers in arms

p. 5

GUIDE TO RESIDENCES

Residence, Condo and Apartment Listings pp. 35-41 Before you sign p. 13 Running the show

pp. 24, 34

Ottawa’s Canadian War Museum

p. 20

Editorial: Mot du premier ministre Le jour du Souvenir rend hommage à tous ces femmes et hommes, héros de guerre, à l’inestimable sacrifice qu’ils ont fait pour que l’avenir du monde soit meilleur.

Honorons la mémoire de ceux que la guerre nous a enlevés, saluons nos vétérans qui sont toujours avec nous, et pensons à nos militaires québécois et canadiens qui sont présentement en mission à l’étranger pour défendre la paix, la justice, la liberté, le respect des droits humains.

Portons fièrement le coquelicot en leur honneur.

Remembrance Day pays tribute to all the men and women, to all the war heroes, whose inestimable sacrifices made the future of the world better.

Let us honour the memory of those who are no longer with us. Let us salute the veterans who are still with us. Let us remember our troops who are abroad to defend peace, justice, freedom, and respect of human rights.

Let us proudly wear the poppy in their honour.

Don’t allow our infrastructure to deteriorate The worldwide stock market implosion and the start of a recession in North America present a particular challenge to our governments.

With his increased standing in the Commons, Stephen Harper will be tempted to pursue his belief in trickledown economic policies. We think otherwise. The decreased value of the Canadian dollar, linked to the stunning, though cyclical drop in oil and natural gas prices, can only help our challenged manufacturing sector.

But it won’t be enough. Now is the time to revert to much-maligned Keynesian solutions – yes, deficits are bad, but massive unemployment and swollen welfare rolls are worse.

We urge the Harper government to massively invest in infrastructure, especially health care and mass transit. When prices in fossil fuels return to where they should be, given limited supply and exponentially increasing demand, government revenues they supply can be used to pay down this spending.

Canadians can be thankful that our more closely regulated (and more monopolistic) banking system is not facing the same problems as those in the U.S. One estimate ex-

pects an additional 5 million Americans to join the 47 million already without health care in 2006 according to the U.S. Census Bureau – 15.8% of the population, a rate that has increased for six consecutive years. A recent survey of 4500 U.S. hospitals, reported in the New York Times, found that more than half were technically insolvent or at risk of insolvency. The evidence is there for all to see: We must not allow our medicare system to deteriorate in a similar fashion just because a rightwing government believes the marketplace solves everything. It doesn’t.

The Harper government must strengthen our health care system at a time when the seniors and soon-to-be seniors who paid those heavy taxes, compared to the U.S., will be needing greater care. If the ripple effect of the world economic crisis curtails demand for our products and creates more unemployment, we expect our governments to see this as an opportunity to rebuild crumbling urban infrastructure and extend mass transit, to make us less dependent on fossil fuels when prices start to rebound, as they will. Then will come the time for deficit fighting, not now.

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2 THE SENIOR TIMES November 2008 www.theseniortimes.com

Pistols and blue berets?

Retired general and military historian speak out Adam Desaulniers This Remembrance Day will be observed by Canadians deployed abroad in over a dozen countries – many in UN contingents that wouldn’t fill a minivan. When it comes to tackling modern conflicts like the Balkans, Somalia, Rwanda, and Afghanistan, has the political expediency of Canada’s peacekeeping image left our soldiers fighting – and losing – yesterday’s war?

“The politicians who make these decisions – who decide for instance, ‘We’re going to declare the [Afghan] war over in 2011, folks’ – do not usually get challenged with the consequences,”observes military historian Desmond Morton of McGill University. “These small [UN] operations that have two guys or a sergeant and a corporal are cheap, and they can say ‘We were involved in 93% of all UN operations.’ When they want two Canadian staff officers to go to Goma or some such place, it seems like a small commitment and a little bit of profile.”

But such peacekeeping posturing excuses neglect on the ground. “Successive governments have created this myth – of both political stripes,” maintains retired Major-General Lewis MacKenzie, who detailed the aftermath in his recent memoir Soldiers Made Me Look Good, “because you can slash and burn the defence budget if the country is convinced that we’re just peacekeepers and we only need pistols and blue berets. Nobody much complains... Northern Uganda, the Balkans, Somalia,

Rwanda, and it just went on and on and on... the only way to save money was to cut personnel.”

“Today the infantry is 2000 smaller than the Toronto Police,” he laments.

“As far as the army itself goes, it really has to be rebuilt – it needs at least five years. I say it’s broken because it’s turned itself inside out.

The army commanders have a horrendous challenge these days.

There’s very high attrition. A lot of soldiers are on their fourth tour, and when they come home they’re only with their families for two weeks.

You do that for five or six years, and your spouse looks at you and says, ‘You’d better make up your mind.’”

The theory that a peacekeeping nation does more with less takes its toll on fighting cohesion too, according to MacKenzie: “It used to be that soldiers slept, trained, and fought together for three years. Now we have units we patch together from all over the country – a lot of them are reservists. The troops call it ‘plug and play.’ And then when we bring them back they disperse.”

At the same time, much of the Forces’ infrastructure is getting outsourced. “A general told me recently he was working on his business plan,” says Morton, recounting cost-cutting efforts that required trainees to return to the mess hall mid-day rather than cook in the field.“That’s what I mean about privatization,” he says. “Generals who have to think about nickels.

The military have lost all their battles in Ottawa since the early nineties.” (continued next page)

www.theseniortimes.com November 2008 THE SENIOR TIMES 3

Factional warfare makes traditional peacekeeping obsolete (continued from previous page)

The Pearsonian myth has done worse than send peacekeeping-equipped soldiers to do counterinsurgency work, insists MacKenzie – it’s politicized the treatment of war dead as well. “In the Balkans when we had 27 killed and over 100 seriously injured, nobody but nobody except for the families in Canada knew about it. In fact bodies

Remembering Our Fallen

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were brought back in the hours of darkness as a matter of policy, and sent to the home towns where they were buried with proper dignity and military funerals. But it sure as hell wasn’t a media event, because it was deemed – erroneously, what we were doing – as peacekeeping. But it wasn’t – it was two factions fighting each other. That was not deemed to be in Canada’s image, so there was a blackout as far as media reporting, that went on for about two years.”

Warring factions with no clear lines of authority are the players in many modern conflicts, notes MacKenzie, not warring states capable of brokering a truce. “Factions don’t have a flag in front of the UN, they don’t have a delegation, and if you broker a deal with them, there’s a very good

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A D I V I S I ON OF FA I R W A Y MA N AG EM E NT C OR P .

chance that you’re not even going to be able to find them... Because they’re factions. And as a result – I know people are critical of me for saying it – but when we go into missions like this now, we have to be strong enough to say to the factions: ‘Keep the peace or we’ll kill you.’ That’s the only way to control these bullies and drunks and war criminals.

You can’t go in and negotiate, like you used to be able to do with countries when they went to war.

Not many countries are going to war these days.”

A case in point being Kosovo, where both experts agree Canada failed to act in its own interest. Says MacKenzie: “We got sucked into protecting a state run by a terrorist organization... Now it’s sort of a mini-state with, unfortunately, prostitution and the slave trade and drugs and foreign troops as their source of income.” Says Morton: “CNN wanted war – it wanted people to go to Kosovo for various news-type reasons, and it presented Kosovo as a shocking case of Serbian genocide on humble, beautiful and lovable Albanians. The media went along with it.”

Where opinions diverge is on the lessons to be applied to the situation in Darfur – MacKenzie favours another NATO intervention, where Morton sees more of the same, merely “a crude Sudanese attempt to put down a separatist insurrection” with bad actors on all sides.

MacKenzie believes it’s possible and necessary to secure the refugee camps. “We’re not going to put [soldiers] into Sudan and fight the Sudanese army and occupy Khartoum,” he says. “The UN decided to augment the African Union force that’s there, and that’s where General Dallaire and I have a lot of significant debate, because before he became a senator he was very much on the side of NATO forces assisting [in Darfur] but then the Liberal Party changed its mind, and decided that they’d only send some armored vehicles and a few staff officers, and it was declared that that was enough.

And I still very much disagree with that.”

“The area’s so large and the force is so small, they’re spread so thin that they’re vulnerable – a number of AU troops were ambushed and killed just over a month ago. Aside from the country and the challenge, it just can’t be handled by the AU troops because they just don’t have the transportation or the communication or the means to do detailed patrolling. So we’re supporting a UN resolution and a UN mandate, but it’s frustrating in the extreme because it’s not effective.”

Both veterans still see value in Canada’s wafer-thin UN deployments. “It’s tokenism, but they’re valuable assets on the ground,” MacKenzie asserts.

Morton agrees. “They do useful work. They speak English or French – useful languages in much of Africa and elsewhere – and Canadians have a good reputation for taking these jobs seriously, and doing them pretty well. I encounter people even here at McGill who’ve met Canadians in Africa and come to Canada because of it.” And past glories continue to pay diplomatic dividends, with Canadians still counted on to get the ball rolling: “There’s a feeling that if Canada’s involved, we’ll involve others, we’ll pull the rest of the lot in.”

But foreign policy under Stephen Harper could change all that. “I don’t think he cares very much about Canada’s profile among the right-thinking people of the world, to put it mildly.”

Adam Desaulniers NDG’s Royal Canadian Legion has felt the pinch of demographic shift and declining membership as much as any other. Now, after taking stock and revamping, it’s rebounded in the neighbourhood with a fresh facelift for the premises, more community events, and an opening up of the ranks.

“We had too few people doing too much,” says Branch President Stuart Vallieres of their efforts to cope. “In the past we’ve been seen more as a place exclusively for veterans, centered around, you know... drinking.”

But that’s the old Legion. “Now it’s more of a community centre, a little more ‘dignified.’ We opened up the rules a lot. You don’t have to have any military affiliation – in the past you had to have served.”

Since a bit of outreach was in order, “we examined our options and figured our greatest asset is the building, and that if we made it more appealing that there’d be opportunities for renting it... so we put a lot of effort into improving the property.

When you walk in, it doesn’t smell like a dirty ashstray anymore.”

The makeover has attracted a slew of

bookings as a reception and performance venue, but the mainstay of the establishment remains the fifty-plus crowd. “For seniors it’s a wonderful place. They can come here Friday afternoons, the most popular day, and make a meal of it, and they have comfortable surroundings and activities that are senior-friendly,” he says, citing bingo, darts, and cribbage as top draws.

The higher profile is“probably one of the best things that’s happened to NDG,” according to the branch’s barkeep and Booking Officer Serge Lewenszpil. “It’s kind of giving it a resurgence. We went through a dry spell, with the policing actions all over the world... people who served in Cyprus or the Middle East,” he says, haven’t exactly swelled the membership rolls. “The guys who come back from Afghanistan are a lot like the vets from Vietnam – shell shocked, quite a few committed suicide – PTSD [posttraumatic stress disorder] is a big problem... a lot of them don’t realize that the Legion is the one place they can come out and relax, and I think it’s going to take another year or two before they actually find their way into the Legions.

A lot of them are still in the service, so they haven’t come out yet.” (continued next page)

photo: Robert Galbraith

NDG Legion metamorphosis draws on community

Dave McCrindle – First Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Kris Petersen – Danish Navy, Branch Vice-President Frank Stanway – Second Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Jim McCann – First Canadian Parachute Battalion, Branch President Stuart Vallières – RCAF Bomber Command Sixth Group 427 Squadron, Helen Miller – Widow of navy photographer Eugene Miller, and Bob Venor – First Batallion PPCLI

www.theseniortimes.com November 2008 THE SENIOR TIMES 5

Vet opinions on Afghanistan all over the map

An impromptu roundtable on the Afghanistan mission finds every position on the spectrum represented.

For the dean of the group, 96-yearold Arthur Cochrane, it’s a matter of respecting alliances: “If the Ameri-

cans are there we should be there. If anything ever happened to us, we would lean on them.� Compatriot Jim McCann concurs on the importance of supporting the US, “because Canada’s its number one ally.�

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“It’s a UN-backed war,� says First Batallion PPCLI vet Bob Venor, referring to the Security Council resolutions that sent troops in originally. “These are fighting soldiers that are in there, well trained guys – they want to go, and they’re all volunteers.�

But such sentiments have dwindled well into minority territory with this group. “Why we’re there is a wonder to me,� says Vallieres, citing prior failures of the British and Soviets to exercise control over the area. “Why would anybody else get involved?�

Having gone in “because they thought a lot of human rights were being abused,� he says, “now we’re finding out the people we’re trying to help are the very people that are keeping the war going.�

Branch VP Frank Stanway shares that disillusionment. “I don’t think they’ve figured out a way to win it. They don’t seem to have, because we’re still there after all this time... and we don’t seem to have done a great deal of good promoting our own image, with the Taliban making us out to be a bunch of bandits and murderers.�

Others were never on board in the first place.“My view hasn’t changed – I was against it then, I’m against it now,� says the West Nova Scotia Regiment’s Mickey Laughlin.“There’s no purpose for the war in Afghanistan – just following along with the Americans.�

Thin support on the home front doesn’t help recruitment either. “It’s hard to get the younger people,�Venor says of Afghanistan vets. “Sometimes they like to make a cut and forget about it, to say ‘I’m finished with it...’ When I came back I didn’t want anything to do with the Legion... but later on you realize, this is where you can find brothers in arms. The Legion might not exist in 20 years – a lot of them are closing. In the small towns it’s very active, but in the big towns there’s too much going on. A lot of us have reached a stage where we’re less

mobile and less able to get here.�

Still roughly 200 strong, the NDG Legion remains active with youth outreach as well, with efforts at Canadian military heritage preservation, scholarships for students, awards for RCMP cadets, and sponsorship of a cadet squadron. Their hall is “a very good space� for public functions according to Vallieres, and available cheap at around $200 a night including bartending. Saturday, November 8 at 7 pm the branch holds its annual Remembrance Dinner Dance, and Sunday, November 9 at 2 pm a march to the cenotaph at Girouard Park will be followed by an open house. A second open house follows Tuesday, November 11 at 1 pm. Senior bingo is every Friday at 1:30 pm, and cribbage and darts are every Tuesday from 7 pm.

The NDG Legion is at 5455 de Maisonneuve W. Info: 514-489-9425

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Thank you to our veterans and their families Verdun Legion commemorates Remembrance Day

Verdun vets November 11, 2007 (photos: RCL Branch 4)

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Kristine Berey If you’ve seen the film version of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and think you know what to expect from The Segal’s production of the same play, think again.

Directed by Greg Kramer, the performance on opening night — met with a standing ovation — was a testament to the immediacy and power of live theatre.

The play’s themes of love and loss, hypocrisy and denial, impending mortality — and also truth, transcendence and hope so fragile as to hang by a thread — have been explored by Tolstoy, Chekov and Thomas Mann. It is clear why Williams is considered to be a writer of their stature. His language is musical, performed with breathtaking virtuosity by the close-knit cast. The counterpoint of relationships between the characters is flawless. The final line, echoing a phrase previously uttered by the brutal and domineering character Big Daddy — lustily played by Barry Flatman — gains strength and poignancy when spoken by his son Brick. This character’s pain, communicated by

Todd Sandomirsky in every sound and movement, remains devastating and shattering — still palpable long after the last sounds of clapping die away.

The role of Brick’s love-starved wife is one of the great gifts Williams has given to women in theatre. Severn Thompson plays her with a perfect blend of vulnerability and spunk.

Her brilliant smile meeting the enthusiastic audience at the end of the performance revealed how far she must have had to travel from her personal sense of self into the darkness that is Maggie.

It is a credit to Sharon Bakker’s mastery that, from the mouth of Big Mama, a now commonplace expletive still shocks.

The children, symbolizing those who unquestioningly believe what is told to them and who in their certainty may be the cruelest of all, were suitably obnoxious beyond the call of duty.

Williams had to revise the play to please earlier audiences. He believed that in time, taboos would become less ironclad and, freed from the outdated censorship code that had prevailed until 1968, the public

photo: Randy Cole

Explosive Segal production raises the roof

Maggie (Severn Thompson) and Brick (Todd Sandomirsky) would become more receptive to the true meaning of the work. “People today are more accustomed to scenes of sex and violence… the real theme of the play — the general mendacity of our society — is more clearly seen,” Williams, who lived until 1983, once told an interviewer.

The play is about the destructive power of lies, but also about the possibility that a lie can be transformed — willed — into truth. Wil-

liams’ 1974 ending, less literal than the sanitized movie version, challenges the audience to make the leap of faith that, perhaps, is a prerequisite to hope. The result is a deeply moving, unforgettable, poetic experience.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof runs until November 16 at the Leanor and Alvin Segal Theatre, 5170 Côte SteCatherine. Tickets: 514-739-2301, 514-790-1245 or admission.com

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www.theseniortimes.com November 2008 THE SENIOR TIMES 9

A tale of two campaigns the substance of the issues.

The high road didn’t last long for McCain. When his campaign began to slip and slide during the Neil McKenty summer and could get neither traction nor This is being written a few days be- focus, a cry went out for help. And fore the American election. Which help came with a plane full of leftgives me the perfect chance to go overs from the Karl Rove school of political operatives. out on a limb. So here goes.

These are the guys and girls who I assume that when you read these lines, the United States will have a specialize in the politics of personal new president and his name will be destruction. Forget grappling with Barack Obama. Why did Obama win Obama on the issues. Instead, dig into Obama’s past to see what dirt comes and why did John McCain lose?

The answer, in its simplest terms, is to the surface. McCain, to his credit, that the senator from Illinois had a refused to go after Obama about his plan and stuck to it. The senator relationship with his former minister from Arizona had no plan except to Jeremiah Wright. But that left in play throw spaghetti at the ceiling to see other blemishes on Obama’s record, particularly his association with a dowhat would stick. Not much did.

Senator McCain began by saying he mestic terrorist named Bill Ayers.

Never mind that this was pretty farwould be taking the high road. He would eschew personal attacks. He fetched. This domestic terrorist had would engage his opponent by arguing tossed some bombs when – get this –

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Obama was eight years old. Many years later Obama sat on a board with Ayers at a state university. Unfortunately for the Rovians who had taken over McCain’s campaign, polling showed that these personal attacks on Obama didn’t cut much ice with American voters.

Even on issues of substance, like taxation, McCain refused to engage his opponent. Obama cited chapter and verse to demonstrate that his tax cut would benefit 95% of the middle class.

Instead of arguing the merits, McCain said his opponent was a liar, a tired old Republican refrain for any “tax and spend” Democrat.

It’s also ironic to note that McCain’s biggest splash during his campaign (the choice of the manifestly unqualified Sarah Palin) turned out to be in the end one of his biggest mistakes. By election day, some on the Palin staff were knocking others on John McCain’s staff and rumours circulated that Palin would run for the Republican nomination in 2012. A cynical choice had already become an albatross.

Against these fits and starts, with a different McCain theme almost every day, Obama’s campaign emerged from the beginning “steady as she goes.”

Obama and his staff had one paramount objective. They were determined to tie McCain as tightly to Bush as two peas in a pod.

And they succeeded mainly because they stuck to this theme day after day.

Eventually the ordinary voter gave up

trying to distinguish between the Republican President and the Republican senator. The sins of the one were visited on the other.

The steadiness in his campaign was mirrored in the way Obama dealt with unexpected events like the financial crisis. McCain ran around in circles – suspending his campaign, rushing to Washington, failing to get his colleagues on board – while Obama coolly waited for the facts before making a pronouncement on the crisis.

This is what eventually got through to the electorate. From the primaries through the campaign and the debates, Obama emerged as a thoughtful, eloquent, steady hand. These qualities were illustrated again in Obama’s choice of Joe Biden for VP. Biden was not a headline-grabbing choice (as Hillary would have been).

Instead Biden was another steady hand, complementing and completing Obama’s own strengths.

So by the end of the campaign, the 47-year-old Obama seemed steadier, more presidential and more thoughtful than his somewhat irascible and impetuous 72-year-old opponent, and a majority of voters agreed with former Secretary of State Colin Powell that Barack Obama would make “an exceptional president.”

In conclusion I should say that if this analysis turns out to be wrong, at least I’ll have my very own “Dewey Defeats Truman” style souvenir.

THE SENIOR TIMES Publisher & Managing Editor Barbara Moser Assistant Editor Kristine Berey Office Manager Thelma Gearey Journalists Kristine Berey, Adam Desaulniers, Marilynn Vanderstaay Sales Manager Jacquie Soloway-Cons Advertising Jodie Alter, Gloria Beigleman, Shirley Cohen, Sandra Schachter Production & Design Albert Cormier

since 1986

Online & Production Editor Adam Desaulniers Photo & Technical Coordinator Scott Philip Printing Hebdo Litho Phone 514-484-5033 Fax 514-484-8254 Email editor@theseniortimes.com Website www.theseniortimes.com Cover photo Robert Galbraith

Published by Publications Newborn Inc. Contents copyright ©2008. All rights reserved. Legal Deposit: National Library of Canada No. D368087 Dépot légal Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec, 1993.

Although every caution is taken by Publications Newborn Inc. to monitor advertising in the THE SENIOR TIMES, claims made by advertisers are not necessarily endorsed by Publications Newborn Inc.

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Gay seniors historically marginalized and isolated Shannon Rose

Aging can be hard enough without being childless, estranged from family and marginalized by society.

“Until 1973, homosexuality was on the list of mental illnesses,”says Karen Taylor, Director of Advocacy and Training for SAGE (Senior Action in a Gay Environment). “If we look at the timeline of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual or transsexual) senior, a 70-year-old person would have been brought up to believe that homosexuals are sick, mentally ill, and could be institutionalized.

Taylor explained that SAGE is very important because we [as a society] pay very little attention to older people, especially minorities and the challenges they face.

“SAGE is the largest organization in the United States serving LGBT seniors,” says Taylor. “Our mission is to provide greater quality of life to the aging LGBT community and to promote positive images of LGBT life in later years.”

This past October SAGE hosted their fourth annual conference for gay seniors in NYC. The keynote address was delivered by the AARP President Jennie Chin Hansen, who discussed the spirit of inclusion. There were 75 workshops and presentations aimed at encouraging cooperation with conventional senior organizations to deal with LGBT issues.

By 2030 the number of gay seniors in the U.S. is support from trained volunteers about sexual oriexpected to grow to an estimated 4.7 million, ac- entation issues. They can be reached from 7 pm to cording to the SAGE website.Taylor emphasizes that 11 pm daily at 514-866-5090. gay boomers’ needs can only be expected to increase as their as their numbers surpass previous generCertified professional ations and are more accepting of their sexuality. mobile groomer “LGBT seniors have different life experiences and challenges,” she says. “They are twice as likely for dogs and cats to live alone and four times less likely to have chilHome Service dren. Between those two things, elders are treated differently. Healthcare services assume that there is at least one person at home.” This assumption hinSandra ders the ability of gay seniors to recover after a 514 767-2800 hospital stay.

“There is a longstanding history of isolation for LGBT seniors,” Taylor notes. The attitudes with which they were raised often make it tough for them to be honest about their sexuality. This becomes a significant problem when being placed in residences where most of the residents are heteroI am focusing on Montreal sexuals. “Their heterosexual counterparts were and Florida referral brought up the same way, so it’s challenging for properties, as well as unique LGBT seniors to go to regular community centers property opportunities.

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Before you sign on the dotted line estimate of care was accurate, there were no guarantees. The residence would not sign a Bonnie Sandler, S.W. lease until after the couple had moved in and an inhouse evaluThe decision to move into a resi- ation of care was done. If the asdence, either for you or a loved one, sessment concluded that more care is emotionally exhausting. There is was needed than the original plan, relief after your choice has been the monthly costs would increase. made, but still more remains to be An added half hour of care a day is done – the signing of the lease. approximately $400 a month. The Leases vary from residence to resi- family felt insecure without a dence. Many will use standard leases signed lease and a definite price, with added or separate clauses re- but in the end they were able to garding care, while others will have a sign for the original price, much to customized contract. Generally, a their relief. personal care home (or foster home A more worrisome example is a as some choose to call it) is all inclu- family who gave the required 3 sive without any added costs, other month notice to cancel their old than medication and personal items. lease and planned for the move There are no extra charges for show- based on an estimate quoted by the ers, laundry, food, assistance with residence. When the individual was dressing, and inhouse entertainment. evaluated just prior to the move, the This should be specified in writing care level had changed and the when signing an agreement. monthly cost increased by over a thousand dollars a month.

Should more care be needed than the Many larger residences offer a la residence is able to provide, find carte services. Pay attention to the ouut how much notice is required for prices. Although services may not be a move to another facility. needed at move-in, they may be I have clients who encountered dif- needed further down the road. You ficulty with lease signing since the don’t want to have to move a second monthly cost varies according to care time because of rising costs. Nursing level. Should care needs increase, the facilities or special care floors are monthly cost increases. Most large often all inclusive. residences do their own evaluation Address the difficult questions. to decide on the hours of care.

Should more care be needed than the This is all fine but timing can be an residence is able to provide, find out issue. A family I worked with chose a how much notice is required for a high-end care facility for their par- move to another facility (if it’s a move ents. They were obliged to give their to a government nursing home it’s landlord 3 months notice in prepa- one month). What are the monetary ration for this move. Since the new obligations in the event of death? residence was not prepared to evaluI fail to comprehend why resiate their parents 3 months before the dences continue to charge the full move, an exact monthly fee could amount when an individual is hospinot be determined. talized for a long period of time. No While the residence felt that the services are being provided, no meals

Let’s talk about it

are taken, and yet no reduction is given. Shouldn’t the person just be charged for the rental of the apartment? Shouldn’t this also apply when notice is given and the person is no longer living there? Shouldn’t this be the case in the event of death?

When it’s time to renew your lease you may be asked for an increase.

Check if the increase is just on the rental portion of the apartment and governed by the rental board. Ask all

your questions before signing on the dotted line. Have agreements put in writing and don’t just rely on a handshake. Residences are bought and sold and personnel often change. Be aware and be prepared, and take someone with you who can help with the negotiation and review the lease for you.

Questions or comments are welcome at bonnie@servingmontrealseniors.com and may be used in future articles.

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The War Amps

Sharing the Legacy Members of the CHAMP Program for child amputees will carry on the tradition of “amputees helping amputees” and commemorate and preserve Canada’s military heritage.

Documentaries can be borrowed free-of-charge or purchased at cost-recovery prices.

To see a listing of our Canadian Military Heritage documentaries, visit our Web site at www.waramps.ca, or to order a pamphlet, contact The War Amps: E-ZEE ACCESS: Tel.: 1 800-250-3030 Fax: 1 800-219-8988 Charitable Registration No.: 13196 9628 RR0001

In this Housing edition of The Senior Times we reveal the original meanings of your place of abode.

House and home are among the oldest words in the English language, both being in use before the year 1000. Similar words can also be found in virtually all other Germanic-based languages such as the Dutch huus, German haus and Swedish hus. Etymologically (if not in reality!) a husband is bonded with a house, as originally it meant “master of the household” and not “male spouse.” The word home comes from the Old English hām that referred to a place where one lives and the“ham” spelling lives on in place names such as Birmingham and Durham.

We also see longevity and Germanic origins in the basic ingredients of a house: room, wall, floor, door, and roof. Not quite as ancient in English is the word window that arrived in our language in the 13th century, replacing the Old English eyethurl that meant “eye-hole.” But isn’t window a far more poetic word, literally meaning the “eye of the wind?”

The word for the prettiest of homes, cottage, is first recorded in the 13th century and derives from the Old English word cote that referred to a humble dwelling. This spelling has survived the ages in the word dovecote. Until the 18th century the word cottage was restricted to the homes of the poor, and the OED states that it was only in the 19th century that “the name is divested of all associations with poverty.” Methinks this was a ploy foisted on us by Victorian realtors to increase the market value of hovels.

Likewise, mansion and manor had humble beginnings and etymologically both refer to a place one stays or dwells, deriving from the Latin manere,“re-

Taking stock and reevaluating Common Cents Ivan Cons

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main or stay.” By the late 14th century, however, the word’s meaning ameliorated and its prime sense came to refer to the chief residence of a lord.

At the other end of the real estate scale, the key to understanding the etymology of apartment is in isolating “part,” as the word was first used in the 17th century to refer to the part of a house or building consisting of a suite or set of rooms, allotted to the use of a particular person or group.

Only in 18th century North America did it acquire its present meaning of a single unit within a multiunit residential building that is leased by an individual who occupies the space.

However, if you are male and pride yourself on your suave bachelor apartment, you might not want to relay to your urbane dates that the word bachelor derives from the Latin baccalaria and is related to the Latin word for cow, bacca. Also, a baccalarius referred to a person employed on a grazing farm, though it is unlikely that any academic degree was conferred as a result of a passing mark in sheep grazing.

A bungalow is of more recent and exotic vintage.

In Hindustani, bangla means belonging to Bengal, and in the 17th century a bungalow referred to a lightly built house, usually with a thatched roof.

Over time, the term became generalized for any single-storey house.

Bringing us up-to-date, the sense of condominium as an owned apartment unit only goes back to 1962, but the word’s first usage can be traced back to 1714, when the Danes believed that the Duke of Holstein’s construction of new forts “was contrary to the condominium, which that king and the duke have in that duchy” i.e. joint rule or sovereignty.

Many a contemporary feuding condo or townhouse owner will identify with this snippet of Danish/German real estate history.

Howard Richler’s latest book is Can I Have a Word With You?

Canadians have much to be thankful for as we watch the unwinding of the global economy. Although we’re not immune, our banking system was recently ranked as the best in the world. It’s safe to say we can expect some difficult times ahead in many sectors of our economy, and one of the sectors already showing signs of a slowdown is housing.

Depending on your region, housing prices will be affected differently. Some owners will see more significant reductions in market value. For most Canadians the purchase of a house is the single largest investment they’ll make, and the single largest asset they’ll own.

The last few years have seen emerging trends that have a particular impact on seniors. Firstly, there are many seniors with paid-off mortgages who are house rich but cash poor. Municipal governments

14 THE SENIOR TIMES November 2008 www.theseniortimes.com

have raised property tax evaluations significantly.

Also, a large majority of Montreal’s housing stock is old, requiring major renovations. As a result, many seniors on fixed incomes can no longer afford to live comfortably in their own homes, or are forced to take home equity lines of credit to do so.

The second trend is that because of low interest rates, many seniors are opting to buy condos instead of renting, thus taking on mortgages that may never be paid off in their lifetime. Once these individuals hit retirement, they may have trouble maintaining their mortgage payments and taxes.

Worse, with the severe decline in the equity markets worldwide, many seniors are now faced with substantially reduced investment portfolios, and many who are retired or approaching retirement may no longer are able to live in the way which they had planned.

There are options available and they all centre on taking stock and reevaluating your complete financial portfolio and living expenses. For those strapped for cash, solutions like reverse mortgages and home equity lines of credit may be suitable in some instances. It is important to consult with an independent financial advisor to evaluate your needs.

Price of politics pales beside price of freedom My Way Ursula Feist No part of the education of a politician is more indispensable than the fighting – Winston Churchill of elections.

I have been glued to my TV set for weeks. First there were the Olympics, which I enjoyed except for that story of the little girl with the crooked teeth and the lovely voice who wasn’t allowed to sing because she wasn’t attractive enough! Then coverage turned mostly to the drawn-out and nasty US election campaign. Ours seemed almost benign in comparison, but certainly less time-consuming – each candidate promising a cleaner, safer and more peaceful world!

By now someone will have been elected to occupy that chair in the Oval Office – with his own dream realized, but the great American Dream put on the back burner.

There is a mess to be cleaned up first.

Those who have lost their jobs and savings and can’t afford to retire, or

lost their houses, or lost members of their families to the killing fields, have had a shocking awakening.

I can’t imagine why anyone would want to go into politics these days. Who wants to be made mincemeat of in public, have skeletons dug out of the closet, be mindful of every word and move, and always worry about the next morning’s headlines? Politicians lose all privacy and they – and their families – need to develop the skin of a rhinoceros. Instant news didn’t exist years ago, and history was “cleaned up” by whoever authored it.

Now, events captured by accidental onlookers with digital cameras blur the line between reporting and surveillance.

Anyone who has ever experienced a malignant dictatorship knows how politics can change one’s life and how vital it is to be informed and vote for the right individual. I lived in Berlin during the Hitler years and know what I am talking about. It has affected my entire life and that feeling of insecurity has not left me. It is incomprehensible that such government sponsored crimes were at all possible,

let alone watched and ignored. To be indifferent invites disaster. We are very fortunate to live in a democracy where governments can change without a drop of blood being spilled, and where freedom of speech and the obligation to count every vote are respected.

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month this year, as candles are lit and bare-headed solemn-looking politicians lay wreaths at monuments, I’ll be reflecting on what we’ve made of the freedom for which our soldiers sacrificed everything.

Then I’ll shut off the TV, have a cup of tea and go for a walk – I’ll need some fresh air!

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www.theseniortimes.com November 2008 THE SENIOR TIMES 15

ART

What’ s Happening in November

Memorial Anglican Church Hall holds a bazaar at Saturday, November 15 at 7pm & 9pm, Studio 2146 Marlowe. Info: 514-484-3102 303 presents Vernissage-danse #141: Genera- Friday, November 21 7pm – 9pm and Saturday, tions, a collaboration of artists working on the November 22 10am – 3pm, Anglican Church of question of age, body memory, and historical re- the Resurrection hosts a Christmas Bazaar at 99 vivals at 372 St Catherine W, #303. $12/$10 stu- Mount Pleasant, Pointe-Claire.

Info: 514-697-1910 dents. Info: 514-393-3771 Thursday, November 20 – Sunday, November Saturday, November 22 10am – 2pm, Centre 30 Mile-End Gallery holds their annual exhibition Greene holds a holiday craft sale and bazaar at 1090 Greene. Info: 514-931-6202 and sale at 5345 Park Avenue. Vernissage Saturday, November 29 All Saints Anglican Thursday, November 20 6pm – 8:30pm.

Church holds a Christmas Bazaar at 7325 Ouimet, Info: 514-271-3383 Until Friday, December 12 Concordia Faculty of Verdun. Info: 514-368-4043 Fine Arts presents Stinger Editions, prints by award-winning non-print artists in collaboration CLUBS with master printers and until Friday, November 28, Concordia students and alumni exhibit Inner Thursdays at 2pm, Centre Greene holds ballroom Space/Outer Place. 1515 St Catherine W, Room dance classes for those with Parkinson’s at 1090 Greene, Westmount. Bring an able-bodied partEV 1-715. Info: 514-848-2424 x 7962 November 27 to December 15 the Women’s Art ner. Info and registration: 514-484-2016 Studio of Montreal will be presenting their coffee Saturday, November 15 and Saturday, Novemand chocolate paintings at 5673 Sherbrooke W ber 29 at 8pm the Single Person’s Association (corner Harvard). Free admission. Come have a hosts a dance at the St. Catherine Laboure Church, coffee and admire their work. Info: 514-803-5627 448 Trudeau, Lasalle. $12. Info: 514-366-8600 Sunday, November 16 at 1pm the NDG Canine Club meets in Old Montreal at de la Commune BAZAARS and St-Paul W. Bring your 4-legged friends and a Friday November 7 from 2pm – 8:30pm and picnic basket! Info: 514-594-4114 Saturday November 8 from 10am – 2pm, St. Tuesday, November 18 at 2:30pm the St. James Paul’s Anglican Church hosts their annual bazaar Literary Society presents a coffee tasting event at at 379, 44th Avenue, Lachine. Info: 514-634-1965 Picasso Restaurant (reception hall) at 6810 St. Friday, November 7 6pm – 8:30pm and Satur- Jacques W. $10. Info: 514-484-0146 day, November 9 10am – 2pm St Andrew’s Pres- Thursday, November 20 Helvetia Seniors Club byterian Church holds their Christmas Bazaar at invites Swiss seniors and their partners to hear 496 Birch, St. Lambert. Info: 450-671-1862 Peter Kobel speak on The Importance of Proper Saturday, November 8 and Sunday, November Estate Planning, followed by lunch at Monkland 9 10am – 5pm Baie D’Urfé Potters Guild holds Grill, 6151 Monkland. Info: 514-481-2928 their annual fall sale and exhibition at the White- Saturday, November 29 at 9:30am Montreal side Taylor center, 20551 Lakeshore, Baie Urban Hikers Club meet at Place-Des-Arts eastD’Urfé. Vernisage Friday, November 7 from 7 – ern ticket booth for a guided walk through the un9 pm. Info: 514-485-7674 derground city. Info: 514-366-9108 Saturday, November 8 10am – 2pm, St. Philip’s Church hosts a Christmas Bazaar at 7505 SherREMEMBRANCE EVENTS brooke W. Info: 514-481-4871 Saturday, November 8 10am – 3pm, Good Shep- Sunday, November 9 at 2pm Lachine Royal herd Community Centre hosts their annual bazaar Canadian Legion holds a Remembrance Day Parade at 3015 Henri Dunant, Lachine. at 850 Dominion, corner St. Antoine.

Info: 514-637-8002 Info: 514-933-7351 Thursday, November 13 3:30 – 8:30pm, West- Sunday, November 9 at 2pm the Verdun Legion mount High School hosts a book fair at 4350 StCatherine W. Drop off used book donations Friday, November 7 and Wednesday, November The J.I. Segal Awards of the Jewish Public Li12 5:30-8pm. Info: 514-483-3600 Saturday, November 15 10am – 3pm St. Mary’s brary were established in 1968 to honor and perParish holds a Christmas Fair at 735 Miller, petuate the memory of the Great Canadian Yiddish poet J.I. Segal. The awards were develGreenfield Park. Info: 450-671-0416 Saturday, November 15 9am – 3pm, St. Thomas oped to encourage and reward creative works on More hosts a bazaar at 978 Moffat. corner Ban- Jewish themes and to recognize contributions in Jewish education. nantyne. Info: 514-768-4741 This year, the winners will be honored in a speSaturday, November 15 10am – 4pm, Hungarcial 40th anniversary celebratory gala on Tuesday ian United Church hosts a Christmas sale and November 11th at 7:30 pm in the Jewish Public food fair at Jean Talon and l’Acadie.

Library, 5151 Cote St. Catherine. This gala is Info: 514-483-6916 open to the public and admission is free.

Friday, November 21, 5pm – 8pm, and SaturThe winners this year are Dov-Ber Kerler for day, November 22, 9:30am –2:30pm Trinity

Remembrance Day Parade & Memorial service places wreaths at the Verdun Cenotaph facing city Hall. Branch opens at 12pm and formation at 1:45pm. Music and refreshments following the ceremonies. Info: 514-769-2489 Tuesday, November 11 at 2:30pm the Verdun Legion holds a Remembrance Day parade and show at 4538 Verdun (facing metro).

Info: 514-769-2489 Tuesday, November 11 at 12:30pm, Atwater Library hosts a presentation about Montreal surgeon Dr. Francis Scrimger, awarded the Victoria Cross for his work in World War I. Info: 514-935-7344 Friday, November 28 at 6pm Lachine Royal Canadian Legion hosts a catered turkey dinner at 3015 Henri Dunant, Lachine. $25. Reserve tickets

by November 14. Info: 514-637-8002

LECTURES

Thursday, November 13 at 8:30pm, Dr. Nessa Cronin from the National University of Ireland presents An Irish Poetics of Place? Poetry, Topography and the Irish Literary Tradition at the Hall Building room H-1220 at 1455 Maisonneuve W. Info: 514-848-8711 Sunday, November 16 from 12:30 – 4:30pm, Tai Chi Center presents Ano-Hou (answer to a prayer) Life Enhancement, an alternative skills and tools gathering, at 19 Centre Commercial, Roxboro. $5 donation. Info and registration: 450-764-1066 November 17 & 21 and December 1 & 8 at 7:30pm Legacy for Learning Series presents Between Cross and Crescent: Jewish Civilization from Mohammed to Spinoza at the Shaare Zion Congregation, 5575 Cote St. Luc Road. $54 /$36 JPL & Shaare Zion members and students.

Info: 514-481-7727 x 226 Tuesday, November 25 at 7:30pm the St. James Literary Society presents John Steffler, who will speak about his work and role as Canada’s Poet Laureate, at the McGill Faculty Club, 3450 McTavish. $10/students $3. Info: 514-484-0146 Wednesday, November 26 at 7pm Dr Joe Schwarcz presents An Apple a Day, a studied portrait of food fears and trends. Council room, City Hall. Info: 514-630-1218 x 1632

Segal Awards honour Jewish creativity

16 THE SENIOR TIMES November 2008 www.theseniortimes.com

Dr. Hirsch and Dora Rosenfeld Prize for Yiddish, Leonard Cohen for English Fiction and Poetry Prize on a Jewish Theme, Mayer Kirshenblatt and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett for English Non-Fiction Prize on a Jewish Theme, Anne Élaine Cliche for French Literature Prize on a Jewish Theme, Pierre Anctil for Translation Prize of Book with a Jewish Theme, Ira Robinson for Canadian Jewish Studies Prize, Nitza Parry for The Jacob Zipper Prize in Education, and Ina Fichman and Dov Okouneff for Michael Moskovitz Prize in Film/Video on a Jewish Theme.

Local folk will love these vocals Notes of note Paul Serralheiro The summer festival season may be long gone, but there’s no reason to hibernate just yet, since there is lots of good music to be heard around town both familiar and exotic.

In the first week of November, the Festival du Monde Arabe happens at three main venues: Place des Arts, Sala Rossa and Kola Note. Over 20 shows present the richness and variety of music with roots in North African and the Middle East, from Iranian music steeped in ancient Sufism to bluesy Gnawan music to more modern fusions. This is music that knows no borders of religion or nationality. A delight for the ears.

Also in the first week (November 4), the three-

MUSIC

decades-old Willelm Breuker Kollectief swings by for a visit at Sala Rossa. This unusual Dutch freejazz-meets-cabaret big band is entertaining and virtuosic, featuring skilled instrumentalists with a strong dose of humour.

Fans of vocal music are blessed this month with a wide palette of choices. Jazz singer Ranee Lee takes up the mic for some mainstream jazz balladeering the weekend of November 7-8 at Upstairs Jazz Bar and Grill on MacKay Street. Lee’s voice is unique: unlike so many Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald imitators, she has her own sound.

The less original but nonetheless pleasant Susie Arioli and her band appear at the Theatre Outremont November 27 as part of the Montreal International Jazz Festival’s off-season programming.

Classical vocal music is also plentiful, with, among many others, the Opera de Montreal’s presentation at Place des Arts of Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers, which contains many well-loved arias (November 1-13). International and local artists take

Productions presents Ko-Koo, classical, gospel and modern music at St. Ansgar's Lutheran Saturday, November 9 at 3:30pm Dutch cellist Church, 4020 Grand. Admission: goodwill offerPieter Wispelwey and pianist Alexander Melnikov ing for South African mothers and children afplay Barber, Chopin, Martinu and Rachmaninoff fected by HIV/AIDS. Info: 514-486-5404 at Pollack Hall, 555 Sherbrooke W. $35 /$15 stuMonday, December 1 at 8pm the Cappela Antica, dents. Info: 514-932-6796 McGill Consort Of Viols and the McGill Recorder November 14 at 7:30pm, The Lakeshore music Consort play a Christmas Rennaissance at Redsociety presents Trio Fibonacci at Union Church, path Hall, McGill, McTavish Gate. $10.

24 Maple. $12/$6 seniors and students.

Tickets: 514-398-4547 Tickets: 514-457-5756 Monday, December 1 at 8pm McGill Wind SymNovember 19 – 20 and 26 – 28 at 8pm Concorphony plays the work of Charles-Simon Catel, Ka dia students play at Oscar Peterson Concert Hall Nin Chan, Walter Hartley and Jonathan Dagenais at 7141 Sherbrooke W. Tickets at door. $5. at the Pollack Hall, 555 Sherbrooke W. $10.

Info: 514-848-4848 Tickets: 514-398-4547 Tuesday, November 18 at 12:30 pm, Le Groupe Tuesday, December 2 at 8pm McGill Vocal MusiArt, the choir of MUHC Department of PsyGroup perform Luna Pearl Woolf, Trevor Weston, chiatry, performs choral music at Atwater Library.

Julian Wachner and Brian Tate at Pollack Hall, Info: 514-935-7344 555 Sherbrooke W. $10. Tickets: 514-398-4547 Sunday, November 23 at 2pm Reiner Trio plays Vaughan Williams and Jean Coulthard at Pollack Hall, 555 Sherbrooke W. $15.

THEATRE Tickets: 514-398-4547 Wednesday, November 12 – Wednesday, NoFriday November 28 and Saturday, November vember 19 at 8pm, and Sunday, November 16 at 29 at 7pm, McGill Symphony Orchestra plays 3pm the D.B. Clarke Theatre presents Dulcinea’s Messiaen and Rachmaninoff at Pollack Hall, 555 Lament, 1455 Maisonneuve W. $28/$24 seniors.

Sherbrooke W. $12. Tickets: 514-398-4547 Tickets: 514-848-2424 x 4742 Saturday, November 29 at 7:30pm, Zerf Until Friday, November 16 Altera Vitae Productions presents Almost Blue by Keith Reddin at CHORALE & ORCHESTRA

Presents:

Bach Mass in B Minor Artistic Director: Peter Willsher

Dec. 6, 2008, 7:30pm Tickets $20/$15 seniors and students.

Admissions Network 514 790-1245 www.admission.com or at the door

the stage at the intimate Chapelle Historique du Bon-Pasteur at 100 Sherbrooke E to present Czech and Slovakian lyrical gems November 13. Featured artists are baritones Adam Plachetka, Mikulas Scneifer and Pavol Kuban.

Three concerts of note at the Oscar Peterson Concert Hall are those of jazz trumpeter and music professor Charles Ellison, which takes place November 13 at 8pm ($5 seniors), the Klezmatics November 29 at 8:30pm with proceeds from the show going to support the KlezKanada Youth Scholarship Fund, and finally, on November 23 at 8pm you can help support the I Medici Di McGill Orchestra by attending their 20th anniversary concert.

This group is made up in part of members of the faculty of medicine at McGill. They will be joined by guest piano soloist Seth Durst from New York City to perform works mostly by Mozart.

Admission by donation is $10.

Mainline Theatre, 3997 St-Laurent. $18.

Tickets: 514-849-3378 Until Saturday, November 15 Talisman Theatre presents Down Dangerous Passes Road by Michel Marc Bouchard at La Chapelle, 3700 StDominique. $20. Info: 514-843-7738 Wednesday, November 12 to Saturday, November 16 Intentional Dreams Productions presents I Ought To Be In Pictures by Neil Simon at La Risée, 1258 Bélanger. $18 advance, $20 at door. Tickets: 514-272-9430 November 12 to November 16 Gleams Theatre presents The Bald Soprano by Eugene Ionesco at Geordie Space, 4001 Berri #103. $25.

Tickets: 514-934-0535 November 13 to November 29 at 8pm Persephone Productions presents Othello, directed by Gabrielle Soskin, at McCord Museum, 690 Sherbrooke W. $26/$18 seniors.

Tickets: 514-398-7100 x 234 Friday, November 28 to Sunday, December 7 Geordie Productions presents The Little Prince at D.B. Clarke Theatre, 1455 Maisonneuve W. $15 seniors/$13.50 children. Tickets: 514-845-9810 November 28 to November 30 Aytahn Ross Circus Montreal presents Circo D’Hiverno, a fusion of circus, comedy and theatre, at Theatre St Catherine, 264 St Catherine E. $15 advance, $20 at the door. Tickets: 514-524-1554

The November theatre scene Byron Toben The usual post-Fringe paucity of English theatre lasted until mid-October, when the falling leaves heralded November with a bang. Two dynamite shows recently wrapped up at the Centaur – Scorched and Life is a Dream – and at least a dozen promising plays are on tap this month.

A production not to be missed is Dulcinea Langfelder’s dance-drama Dulcinea’s Lament at the D.B. Clarke November 12 to 19.

The amazing Ms. L, last seen at the Centaur in Clinging For Dear Life, where she whirled around

stage in a wheelchair, here reverts to foot and horse in an impressionistic version of her namesake, the barmaid from Don Quixote and Man of La Mancha.

Our very own off-Broadway temple, the Main Line, hosts Against Blue. The script, about an excon and a beautiful woman (please somebody, write about an average looking heroine!) in trouble with a web of mind games is enhanced by director Carolyn Fe’s original song of the same title and sung by her. Multitalented Patrick Goddard, manager of the venue, is also among the cast.

www.theseniortimes.com November 2008 THE SENIOR TIMES 17

Art powers child development, says researcher Wright Gisele Rucker “When you’re young, you discover what you’re good at,” says Robin Wright, Professor of Social Work at University of Windsor. “I was great with kids.”

Canada’s top researcher in the impact of arts participation on youth development, Wright determined effective ways to recruit and engage youth in community-based arts programs. As co-investigator of the National Arts and Youth Demonstration Program (NAYDP) with her husband, Dr. Lindsay John, she concluded kids participating in structured arts activities gain increased confidence, improved interpersonal and conflict resolution skills, improved problem solving skills, and skills in arts activities.

Graduating from Toronto’s Humber Community College with a Child and Youth Worker Diploma, she capitalized on what she learned as a playground supervisor in Hamilton’s poorer neighOUTREMONT

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bourhoods and in Toronto’s housing projects. Her focus was “disturbed children” – a term used in the 1960s to describe children with acute emotional and behavioural problems. She’d been working for 15 years in treatment centres in Toronto and Hamilton, as well as in schools with teachers as a team leader, before she pursued a university degree in social work at McMaster University.

“We know so much more now than before,” she says. “Then, no one was talking about abuse, sexual violence, or domestic violence. It got on the table when Trudeau brought in the divorce laws, which made it easier for women not to be chattel.

Recognizing women’s rights made getting a divorce easier. There were strong social policies to support women and children, better than what had previously been in place.”

For her degree Wright researched “the kinds of programs to build and have in place in the school system as interventions to prevent students dropping out of school, antisocial behaviour, and violence, and to increase academic achievement.” Her doctoral study subsequently showed slight behavioural improvements with interventions like classroom management, cooperative learning, peer tutoring and mentoring.

When she was hired at McGill, she aimed at longer term prevention programs that could provide models for positive youth development. With support from the Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation and public funding, she gathered a research team to conduct the National Arts and Youth Demonstration Program to gauge how effective arts programs are in enhancing the life chances of children and youth in lower-income

communities. The three-year study in five Canadian sites showed that community-based organizations could successfully recruit, engage and sustain the participation of children and youth in structured arts programs, and that the children involved in displayed greater pro-social behaviours and self-awareness. It also showed positive impact on school performance and on the children’s families and communities.

Her current work is in assessing the impact of the arts experience on children who participated in the NAYDP in 2001. If they’ve retained positive outcomes, Wright hopes the results will help futher promote and expand community-based arts intervention for children everywhere.

Info: mcgill.ca/naydp Gisele Rucker is the Director of the Academy at the Segal Centre for the Performing Arts.

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McGill University Health Centre presents a model Patient Room of the Future and public health lectures at Westmount Square in November.

Monday, November 10 at 2 pm Dr Gary Inglis, MUHC Geriatric Medicine Site Director, presents Where did I put my keys?

Taking a look at memory loss and cognitive disorders, Dr Inglis reviews warning signs, prevention and treatment.“What is the evidence out there that helps us prevent memory loss?” he asks. “We know that stroke and Alzheimer's share risk factors: hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, and sedentary lifestyle,” each soaring in our aging population.

“There’s a lot of research out there for treatment,” and his ongoing work in clinical trials for new therapies to prevent amyloid deposition, though “still experimental,” will be up for discussion.

Erratum

Tuesdays at 10:30 am

Our apologies to the subject of October’s headline “Current champions keep title in shuffleboard curling match” for the omission of their team photo. Team Manoir Westmount were indeed captured celebrating their victory: Leisure Supervisor Simona Buth, Thelma McNicoll, Mary Sancton, Joyce Steinman, John Byers, Stanley Frost, and (seated) Paul O'Neill, Ron Jamieson, Eva Mikelson, Judy Karafky, Paul Hinphy, and Anita Wood.

18 THE SENIOR TIMES November 2008 www.theseniortimes.com

Thursday, November 13 at 2 pm Dr Carlo Galli, MUHC Pediatric Trauma Program Coordinator, speaks on How to keep kids safe when the temperature drops.

“We’ll explain a bit about pediatric trauma and treating and preventing injuries in kids, basing it more on winter activities coming up,” says Galli.

“When grandkids are coming, it’s important to child-proof the home,” with medication, electrical sockets, candles, and tree decorations meriting special attention, he notes. Toy buying guidelines, proper car seat setup, and winter playground precautions will be reviewed, and more tips on holiday safety will be available to take home.

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HEADING SOUTH FOR THE WINTER?

Visiting the Canadian War Museum

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Robert Galbraith There is an old adage that says, “Those who do not learn from the past will be forced to relive it.”

It is for this reason that institutions like the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa exist, and must continue to exist.

The museum neither glorifies nor endorses war – it’s a time capsule exhibiting the memoirs and artifacts of our warring past, and to a lesser degree, the present.

Anyone who visits its labyrinth of exhibits is left to contemplate the sacrifices of life and limb that have allowed us the life of freedom and choice that most take for granted. This is the message the museum leaves visitors to ponder.

“We are focused on Canadian history, and the preservation of material of what has come before,” says James Whitham, the acting manager of collections for the museum. “This is the overall reason why any museum collects.” But the institution serves other purposes just as important, he notes. “A great part of the museum’s agenda

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includes education and research.”

Whitham says that many of the artifacts and documents now housed in the museum were donated by Canadian war veterans and their families. “We have received everything you can possibly imagine, including Victoria Crosses, artwork, and even vehicles, including a tank. We even received bombs that were converted into flower planters.”

Anyone who possesses any artifact, relic, or document of war history is encouraged to call the museum if they are interested in donating or inquiring about it. Whitham recommends writing the museum describing the object and its background, or visiting the museum website. A visit is highly recommended for those who wish to know the price our soldiers paid for the Canada we know today.

The Canadian War Museum is at 1 Vimy Place in Ottawa, five minutes west of Parliament Hill. $10 adults 18+, $8 seniors 65+ and students. Free admission to Canadian veterans and up to 3 accompanying family members.

Info: 800-555-5621 or warmuseum.ca

All photos of the Canadian War Museum by Robert Galbraith

In honour of those who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our rights and freedoms.

En l’honneur de tous ceux et celles qui ont fait l’ultime sacrifice pour la défense de nos droits et de nos libertés.

Geoffrey Kelley MNA for Jacques-Cartier

François Ouimet MNA for Marquette

Lawrence S. Bergman MNA for D’Arcy-McGee

Henri-François Gautrin MNA for Verdun

514-697-7663

514-634-9720

514-488-7028

514-766-7503

Yolande James MNA for Nelligan

Jacques Chagnon MNA for Westmount–Saint-Louis

Pierre Marsan MNA for Robert-Baldwin

Raymond Bachand MNA for Outremont

Vice President of the National Assembly

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514-482-0199 www.theseniortimes.com November 2008 THE SENIOR TIMES 21

Fading from blue to black Kristine Berey

to the World Health Organization, depression will become the second leading cause of disability worldwide by 2020.

The problem with depression is that it may worsen if it is ignored – which is a pity, since there are many forms of help available in the community if one is informed.

To raise awareness, the CSSS Cavendish is organizing a free “Singing the Blues” concert on Wednesday, November 26. Award-winning singer and songwriter Rob Lutes will be on hand to lift spirits with his soulful, bluesy ballads.

Before the concert, community organizations will display information on the services they offer for those living with mental illness and to their families. Psychiatrist Floriana Ianni will speak on how to distinguish a passing phase of “the blues” from clinical depression and Jason Finucan will share his insights in navigating this sometimes crippling disease.

The event begins at 6 pm at River’s Edge Community Church, 5567 Cote-St-Antoine.

As the weather changes and there is more darkness than light to our days, it’s not unusual to feel somewhat grumpier or a little discouraged. Most of us carry on and get through it as best as we can. But when sadness, exhaustion and hopelessness refuse to lift, interfering with daily activities, they may signal an underlying depression.

Here is how Jason Finucan, 33, describes his bout with this illness: “For me, depression descended suddenly, like a plexiglass prison from which I could see and be seen in a world I could no longer touch, smell or feel.” This dark mood could last for months, then lift suddenly, he says. “When depressed, all of my basic physical, emotional and cognitive abilities were severely muted so that everyday life ranged from difficult to impossible.” Finucan, who had experienced heart surgery, says the complete loss of joy he had felt made his operation seem like “a trip to the dentist” in comparison. “I have never experienced anything more painful or daunting or terrifying, before or since.”

This chronic condition ranges from mild to severe, touching approximately 1 in 10 Canadians within their lifetime. In 2007, over 27 million prescriptions for antidepressants were filled across the country. According Canadians who winter in the South are needed to participate in an upcoming exhibition at The Canadian Centre for Architecture. While these Snowbirds are away, the Wayward Plant Registry will take in their houseplants and care for them until their return. The plants will be part of a Snowbird Garden that can be enjoyed by those who must stay in the cold! If you are a Canadian Snowbird or know one interested in participating, contact heatherring@gmail.com.

Info: waywardplants.org or cca.qc.ca

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On a Sunday afternoon in October, residents of St. Patrick’s Square enjoyed an autumn tea organized by the St. Patrick’s Square Seniors Recreation Association. The next afternoon a group of knitters at Place Kensington finished blankets, scarves, and mittens they will present to Father Emmett Johns of Dans la Rue on November 12.

At Manoir Westmount, resident volunteers are organizing a bazaar that annually supports 10 local charities.

Outside volunteers are crucial at residences like St. Margaret and Father Dowd. But at independent residences it’s tenants who plan social events and fundraisers.

Residents at St. Patrick’s Square prepare their own meals in their apartments. While the administra-

tion organizes programs including speakers and events, the tenants have created a recreation association that organizes social activities and other inside events.

The association coordinates mixed pool tournaments, dinner dances, line dancing, and religious services, based on suggestions from tenants, and informs them through a monthly calendar.

The committee meets monthly assess, but to consider suggestions – and complaints – from the residents. “We consider each idea,” said Rita Halliday, secretary of the committee. “And then we look at its feasibility. An overnight trip was not very practical for us, but a Chinese food takeout dinner was.”

A Christmas dinner with two sittings, a New Year’s Eve party and a Christmas Fair are all in the works.

At Place Kensington retired social workers Miriam Berger and Elinor Cohen realized the residents were not socializing outside of planned events by the program department. And they realized many of them were knitting alone in their apartments. So they invited the women to meet one afternoon a week to knit together over a cup of tea.

Today the women enjoy fellowship that has extended to knitting with the McGill Knitters and students from Westmount Park Elementary School.

Residents on the assisted living floors are able to participate as well by helping wind balls of wool.

Other activities at Place Kensington include a Saturday international movie afternoon, a welcoming committee and a talent show.

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Elizabeth France, Ali Khan, Ben Finkelstein Project Genesis is an anti-poverty group that helps on an individual level to improve people’s financial situation. Volunteers are an active part of the organization.

Project Genesis provides is looking for volunteers and provides all of the training. The commitment is four hours a week, and they could be involved in the storefront or outreach programs. At the storefront, volunteers meet with clients and provide information on welfare, pensions, shelter allowance, family allowances, and advocate for decent housing conditions. Community organizing volunteers could be involved in door-to-door outreach or have a kiosk in a metro station to tell people about Genesis services and campaigns.

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www.theseniortimes.com November 2008 THE SENIOR TIMES 25

APPLE HILL

Paul Newman’s legacy lives on Here at Sun Youth Nicolas Carpentier

S en i o r C i ti z ens ’ Ho m e 24 hour supervised care Private rooms - Doctor visits Well balanced meals Daily exercise program Fire detectors in each room

J a n a Ce r n y & M i l a S e d i v y Te l 5 1 4 - 4 5 7 - 1 6 3 7 Ce l l 5 1 4 - 8 1 3 - 4 1 6 6 1 1 5 H awt h or n e, Bai e- d ’ Ur fé

On September 26, 2008, actor Paul Newman died after a long battle with lung cancer. Sun Youth’s Sid Stevens thought highly of Newman, not only because of his very successful movie career but mainly because of his community involvement, here and all over the world.

In 1982, Paul Newman founded Newman’s Own, a company that produces a line of all-natural food products. Since its foundation, Newman’s Own has given away more than $250 million to charities around the world.

In 1986, Sun Youth’s Executive VP received a surprise visit from two gentlemen who said they were representing a well-known American actor. They told him that Sun Youth was being considered for a grant.

Nine months passed and Sid Stevens almost for-

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got about it until he received a phone call from Newman’s Own informing him that Sun Youth had been selected as the sole recipient of the profits in Quebec from their line of foods.

For seven consecutive years, Sun Youth received the support of the Newman’s Own Foundation to assist people in need. Between 1987 and 1995 Sun Youth was granted $150,000 and the equivalent of $100,000 in food products to be included in the baskets distributed through the organization’s senior monthly food supplement program.

Sid Stevens never had the chance to meet the screen legend to thank him for his generosity but he did receive a personal note from him: “A lot of people have ideas but never do anything about it.

Other people have dreams but never do anything about it. Other people have ideas and dreams and do something about it. Your organization is doing something and is committed to it.”

“He was very impressed with Sun Youth’s various programs, from our emergency food bank to our summer camp in l’Annonciation,” Sid recalls fondly.

Paul Newman co-founded the Newman’s Own organization with the following mandate in mind: “The more profits we generate, the higher will be the amount given to charitable organizations.”

Sun Youth was fortunate enough to receive donations from Newman’s Own until 1995, when their products stopped being distributed in Quebec.

From all of us at Sun Youth, farewell Mr. Newman.

You will be missed.

Lois Hardacker

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Jeunesses Musicales concerts ideal for young and young-at-heart

• Private residence for seniors • Bilingual team

Kristine Berey Jeunesses Musicales Canada, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting young musicians and reaching young audiences, is offering two series of concerts that are affordable and timed perfectly for seniors and youngsters: not too late at night, and not long enough to tax grandchildren’s attention spans.

The Concerts for the General Public take place early Wednesday evenings. An aperitif, included in the price, is offered prior to the concert at 5pm. The music begins an hour later. The next performance on November 12 will feature the young awardcredit: Jeunesses Musicales du Canada winning violinist Jinjoo Choo, in a spectacularly beautiful program including the music of Bach, VaughanWilliams and the deeply moving yet mysterious Prokoviev Sonata No 2 in D. There are short (35 minute) and long (55 minute) versions of Concerts for Families, both taking place on Sundays. December 21, a most unusual combination of trombone, banjo and souzaphone will be showcased, representing three penguins as they compose a song. There will be spoken text in French, though the music and movement are universal.

To subscribe or receive information on upcoming concerts, call JMC at 514-845-4108 x 221.

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www.theseniortimes.com November 2008 THE SENIOR TIMES 27

South of the Border November 28 at 2pm and 7pm North Country Ballet Ensemble will be hosting The Nutcracker at Plattsburgh State’s Hartman Theater at 101 Broad Street in Plattsburgh.

Info: balletplattsburgh.com

November 15 at 6pm Aldrich Public Library is hosting their first Polenta Festival at 6 Washington St. Enjoy a fantastic Polenta dinner with your friends and top off the evening with the music of Piero Bonamico Jr. Individual seats: $30. Table of 8: $200.

Reservations and info: 802-476-7550

November 16 at 2pm South Burlington Community Library will be hosting music with Gary Dulabaum at 550 Dorset. Info: 802-652-7080

Looking for Snow Tires?

November 18 – December 31 Monday – Friday 10am-5pm and Saturday 12pm-4pm Studio Place Arts is hosting their SPA members show where artists of SPA share their diverse selection of fine art and crafts in time for the holiday gift-giving season. Located at 201 N Main St., Barre.

Info: 802-479-7069

Come to Vermont and save while you enjoy great shopping!

November 14-15 Middlebury College presents the life and poetry of Robert Frost.

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November 8 - November 16 The Shelburne museum will be hosting their hooked rug exhibit, showcasing their 2008 featured artists, Rae Harrell and Diane Kelly. Over 500 newly created works of hooked rug art will be on display. Over 18 vendors will be selling wool and rug hooking supplies.

Classes available with experienced instructors. 555 Shelburne Rd., Shelburne. Info: 518-399-8975 November 6 - 16 Jeh Kulu Dance and Drum Theater Presents Vermonts 14th Annual West African Dance and Drum Festival. Featuring Kiridi “The Orphan,” a full length West African Ballet at the Memorial and Contois Auditoriums, Main Street, Burlington. Tickets available through the Flynn Box Office. Info: 802-859-1802

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On this important day of Remembrance and reminder, we commemorate all those who fought for liberty!

En cette importante journée du Souvenir, nous nous rappelons tous ceux qui se sont battus pour la liberté !

Hon. Stéphane Dion P.C., M.P.

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www.theseniortimes.com November 2008 THE SENIOR TIMES 29

Times and Places

Hvar and islets attract the rich and naked

Molly Newborn

I took an overnight ferry from Rijeka, at the northernmost point of the Adriatic Sea, down the Croatian coast to Hvar Island. The cold autumn weather in the north just wasn’t cutting it for me.

Croatia’s southern islands are the country’s crown jewels. I had heard from a fellow traveler that Hvar Island was the piece de resistance, the most luxurious vacation spot for the fashionable wealthy Europeans. This was the island with Venetian architecture and lavender-covered picturesque mountain terrain, not to mention an average of 2715 hours of sunshine a year. Clearly, this was where I belonged.

Hvar Island is a long thin Island off the southern Croatian coast that stretches 88km east to west with a population of 11,000. Along with a dozen or so travelers, I was deposited at 8am at a dock on the northwest side of the Island near a town called Stari Grad. The other travelers were all picked up by family or friends. I was left alone and was starting to worry. There were no people, cars or boats in

A view of Hvar town from the taxi-boat Green lizard on seaside rock the vicinity, the ferry had sailed away and I was through the lavender-covered mountains to the stranded on this sunny island that my father re- southwest side of the island. We were dropped off ferred to in an email as “in the middle of nowhere.” in the center of Hvar Town (pop. 4000), next to I was starting to wonder if this whole “island ex- the open-air market and a cathedral in the main cursion” was a good idea. square. I meandered through the old white-stone Across from the dock was a small run-down covered square past the multi-million dollar luxrestaurant with a ticket booth. Where was the Ve- ury yachts lined up, each more extravagant than netian architecture? The luxury yachts? Where was the next, and then up the hill through the narrow the castle at the top of the hill mentioned in my stoned pathways to the Green Lizard Hostel, full guidebook? Did I get off on the wrong island? of hung-over British and Irish backpackers recovI walked toward the ticket book and noticed a ering from the club hopping of the night before. woman at the counter. She didn’t speak English but The hostel manager gave me a quick rundown of she managed to direct me to the bus stop next to the the main tourist attractions – museums, nightport. I waited at the empty bus stop with no posted clubs, and the nearby islets. She circled a few, menschedule for about ten minutes. It felt like eternity. A tioning that those were the ones I might enjoy. mini bus miraculously approached. I told the driver “What about the others?” I asked. “They are all I wanted to go to Hvar Town. He said in perfect nice,” she explained, “but I suggest these.”

English “Yes, I know, 10 Kuna please.” ($2) He took I spent the day walking along the port, imagining my bag and loaded it in the back as I hopped into myself lounging on the deck of one of those fancy the bus already loaded with eight tourists. yachts as a handsome pool boy dressed in a white The bus ride was a 20-minute breathtaking drive uniform serves me pink lemonade. I walked

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30 THE SENIOR TIMES November 2008 www.theseniortimes.com

View of Hvar Town with fortress atop the hill around town, past a few overpriced restaurants at the map the hostel manager had given me, and souvenir shops, and a string of jewelry booths circling the islands I should visit. Instead, I decided selling hand made earrings, bracelets and neck- to do my own thing. The first islet we docked at laces to eager buyers such as Canadian girls look- was Jerolim. It looked lovely, small with large rocks ing for treasures. to bask on and enjoy the pleasant seas. Perfect, I I walked along the seaside promenade and the thought. I paid the taxi driver, hopped off, found rocky shores westwards past the luxury hotels and the perfect rock with the most perfect view, laid found a nice rock to lounge on and read for the down on my towel and proceeded to immerse myrest of the day. Exhausted, I went to sleep early. self in my book. This was my serene moment. I Hvar’s main attraction, for me, isn’t the XVIth cen- would spend my day reading, meditating, and retury fortress at the top of the hill or the XVIIth cen- flecting on my journey and the journeys to come. tury oldest municipal theatre in Europe or the Five minutes into my book I realized others had many museums full of culture and history. It is the discovered my rocky shore and planted themselves sun-drenched beaches on the mainland and on on the rocks. I almost had a heart attack when I rethe Pakleni Islands – a group of about 20 islets just alized they were all naked! I had stumbled upon the opposite Hvar Town. Several little taxi boats wait “nudists”islet. Not that there is anything wrong with to take the tourists to the islets. hanging on the beach in your birthday suit, but this I got an early start the next morning to explore certainly was not for me. I quickly gathered up my the Pakleni Islands. I got in the taxi-boat with a belongings and headed straight back to the dock to few tourists at 10 am and we set sail. I didn’t look catch the next taxi-boat. Why didn’t the taxi-boat

Hvar Town port driver say anything as I left the boat? They just let me wander onto the naked island! I waited three hours for the next boat without lifting my eyes.

As luck would have it, the next islet was also full of naturalists. Call me a prude but I couldn’t handle it. Once again I waited on the dock and took the next taxi-boat back to the mainland.

So much for my day of serenity and reflection. I headed back to the Green Lizard and shared a bottle of wine with Irish backpackers who made fun of me for stumbling onto the “sexy sexy islands.”

I did not visit the fortress, the theatre, or the museums in Hvar. Although they are probably very nice, they are not why most people come to Hvar.

They come to tour the swanky hotels, restaurants and bars, canoodle in their yachts and, so I learned, tan on the Pakleni Islands au naturel.

Though I am not yet one of the jet-setting rich and famous cultural elite, I got to spend two days pretending I was.

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www.theseniortimes.com November 2008 THE SENIOR TIMES 31

Universal Access benefits everyone Kristine Berey Gina Lacasse feels like a very lucky person. She has a family, a job she loves at the NDG Community Council, and a solid network of friends and colleagues. The fact that she’s confined to a wheelchair for most of her day is rarely on her mind, except when something, like a dysfunctional elevator, compels her to ask for assistance.

“I only feel disabled when I feel my physical limitations,” Lacasse says.

She credits her foster mom, Aline Lacasse, for recognizing her potential and her “drive beyond

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belief ” to be autonomous. “She never asked what I couldn’t do, but pushed me as far as I could go.”

Her home on Benny Farm, adapted to her needs, brings a great measure of independence to her life.

It features hallways that are wide enough to navigate in a wheelchair without scratching the walls.

There are no stairs. Removable cupboards allow her to use the sink. Most important, the apartment is designed to be easily modifiable if necessary, should counters and light switches need to be moved.

Though Lacasse is happy at home, she is frustrated by not being able to help her increasingly frail mother as much as she would like. Since her mom’s residence is not adapted, it would take a group of people to lift the wheelchair and help Lacasse negotiate the entrance.

As our society ages, Lacasse believes that what used to be seen as accommodations for people with disabilities is now of necessity to older people. She says her dream is that all public and private spaces will eventually become barrier-free.

“Seniors can benefit from adapting their home because their quality of life will improve. There will be less displacement; if you need a wheelchair, you won’t have to move. Physical limitation is everybody’s primary fear. I think it doesn’t have to be.”

The concept of accessibility is still a work in progress that may take three main forms: Adaptation means adding specialized equipment in certain parts of the home. Older buildings can be transformed, sometimes at great expense, to accommodate special needs. This is done on a caseby-case basis in already existing environments.

Since 2000, section 3.8 in the Quebec Building Code stipulates that new buildings must be accessible. Written with wheelchair users in mind, the needs of people with visual, auditory or cognitive impairment may not necessarily be met all the time. As well, the accommodations may be separate from what the majority of people will use, implying an unintended and subtle form of exclusion.

Universal access, or universal design, tries to meet

Gina Lacasse with colleague Leslie Bagg the widest variety of needs, allowing all people to use the facilities in the same way. For example, rather than have a ramp for a few and stairs for most, a slight incline would allow everyone to enter and exit the same way. This benefits mothers pushing strollers or elderly people who use walkers as well.

It’s not easy finding an adapted home, especially an affordable one. According to Josiane Lamothe of the Société d’habitation du Québec, of the 16,074 social housing units that have been created since 2003, only 6% are adapted. At Chez Soi on Benny Farm, all 91 subsidized rental units for seniors are occupied, with 50 names on the waiting list.

Lacasse sees adapted housing as the solution that would keep an increasingly greater number of people out of institutions and also as a way to create a more inclusive society. “My struggle is personal but I’m doing it publicly for seniors and special-needs children.”

“Your first experience of yourself is in your home. If you’re severely disabled, your limitation will be directly proportional to the degree that your home is adapted to your needs.”

The SHQ’s Programme d’adaptation de domicile (PAD) can help subsidize necessary adaptations to your home. If you rent, the landlord must apply.

For low-income seniors over 65, the Logements adaptes pour aines autonomes (LAAA) may be helpful. If you rent, the landlord must consent to the work in writing.

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Dewey the cat loved books and book lovers Did you know that it is a common practice for libraries and used bookstores to adopt homeless cats? Dewey was adopted by the town of Spencer and called the library his home for over 19 years. He won the hearts of the staff and the patrons not just with his good looks, but also with his ability to know who needed him most. He soon became the most famous resident of Spencer. As word spread of this lovable library cat in the local newspapers and radio so did his fame to the nearby towns, then states, then all over the country and the world.

Why would people travel all the and enjoy every Dewey moment. I way from Japan to meet a cat? How read while sipping my hot chocolate can a friendly feline touch the lives of at Starbucks, laughing out loud and countless people around the world? then choking back my tears. Myron You’ll just have to read this New York writes the story of Dewey with heart, Times bestseller to find out! I am the humor, and sincerity. This book is self-proclaimed slowest reader in the for anyone who has been blessed world. I polished off this book in just with the love of an animal, and for Vicki Myron and Dewey a couple of nights. I even tried to everyone else who has yet to know Molly Newborn I have many wonderful books on the slow down my reading, to stretch out this love. shelves at home waiting in line to be Last week I wandered into Studio read, but there was something about City’s Bookstar bookstore in Los An- the way this cat was looking at me that geles, California, where I reside and told me I had to learn of his story.

Gracious Retirement Living was directly drawn to a picture of a This is the true story of a library cat beautiful bright orange cat looking in the small town of Spencer, Iowa. straight back at me on the cover of a One bitterly cold January morning in book called Dewey.

1988, Vicki Myron, director of the Spencer Public Library, found a near frozen kitten shaking uncontrollably in the book return box. His frostbitten paws didn’t stop him from hobbling 2450 Thimens Blvd over to each member of the library St. Laurent staff to show them his gratitude for saving his life. They named the kitten Dewey, after Melville Dewey.

This is the story of Vicky Myron, a Come have fun with us! single mother who survived an alcoThe Steger offers independent & active seniors holic husband and numerous meda dynamic lifestyle! Live entertainment, afternoon socials, ical hurdles including breast cancer. parties, exercise & activities galore!

This is the story of a woman who Enjoy Jewish-style meals & Sabbath services persevered through the toughest of times. This is the story of The — all in a secure friendly environment! Live-in managers.

Spencer Public Library, and the Call for a personal tour & complimentary lunch! humble town of Spencer, in farm Not sure? Ask about a free-trial stay. country Iowa that had suffered a Sign up bonuses too. major economic downturn during the farm crisis of the 1980’s.

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www.theseniortimes.com November 2008 THE SENIOR TIMES 33

It’s music to their ears

photo: CECHEL

Marilynn Vanderstaay

Mark Pinkus

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Pianist performers Mark Pinkus and Tott Moens are two entertainers transporting their audiences back in time.

Tott Moens is my mother. I grew up listening and dancing to her music when she played for my sister and me or led singalongs at her parties.

Now an octogenarian, she fell into her third or fourth career after a friend of mine asked me six years ago to find someone to tickle the ivories for his aunt’s 90 th birthday party at Place Kensington.

Tott Moens at the piano In spite of protests – she hadn’t played in over 10 years – she played a repertoire of the independent artists’ scene in Montreal, that ran from the Gay Nineties through the Pinkus went full time with his music after a 12 Roaring Twenties into Tin Pan Alley and the Big year career as a preschool teacher. Pinkus delights Bands and even the Beatles. A new career was his audiences at senior residences, including a regborn. ular program with Jewish Elder Care.

Knowing the music her generation loves to hear “The music I play brings my audiences back in and sing along to, she tailors her setlist for each time and hopefully gives them new delightful mogroup and event. “I know my audience doesn’t ments of life.” want to just sing along to My Darling Clementine.

Pinkus’ performances are spontaneous and he They want to reminisce with music they were often adds theatre and comedy as the mood allows. courted to and socialized with at parties and “The most important thing for me is to put a spark dances. It brings back feel-good memories.” in their eyes and a great smile on their faces.”

I met Mark Pinkus when he was launching his Reach Tott at tott@vintagemusicbytott.com or fifth album of original piano compositions. Part Mark at pianoforte@look.ca.

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Amenities nearby: metro, bus, shuttle, CLSC, pharmacy, pool, library Services: party room, shared laundry, restaurant/cafe, activity and support Units available: 3½ Included: 1 bathroom, hot water, balcony Pets: cats and small dogs allowed Price: $794

Westmount Place 200 Kensington, Westmount Phone: 514-939-5529 Cell: 514-586-1015 Email: westmount_place@lcnmanagement.com Contact: Charlotte

Amenities nearby: metro, bus, pharmacy, mall, on site depanneur, coffee shop, bakery, cleaners, hairdresser Services: 24 hour doorman, surveillance cameras, shared laundry, storage lockers, bike racks, rooftop deck Units available: 1½, 2½, 3½, 4½, 5½, penthouse Included: 1-2 bathrooms, front/back terrace, stove, fridge, window blinds, dishwasher, washer, & dryer (in some units) Price: $700 - $2500

HOUSING RESOURCES Le Luxor 6803 Abraham de Sola, C.S.L. Phone: 514-341-8600 Fax: 514-340-1389 Email: salesmanager@tramsmgmt.com Contact: Tory Khoury

Amenities nearby: metro, bus, CLSC, pharmacy, pool, gymnasium, mall, depanneur, banking Services: indoor parking, indoor pool, party room, exercise room, insuite laundry Units available: 4½, 5½ Included: 1 bathroom, 2 bathrooms, heating, electricity Pets: yes A/C: included Price: $376k - $477k

Les Habitations Mackle 6655 Mackle, C.S.L. Phone: 514-489-8937 Email: infocanada@groupepacific.com Contact: Patrik Geoffroy

Amenities nearby: bus, CLSC, pharmacy, pool Services: indoor parking, outdoor pool, party room, exercise room, shared laundry Units Available: 3½, 4½, 5½ Included: 1 bathroom, heating, electricity, all appliances Pets: no A/C: included

barbara roberts silver agent immobilier agréé chartered real estate agent

514-990-3883

brobertssilver@sutton.com

Exceptional Service...

100% Client Satisfaction

Need a Manicure or Pedicure?

We’ll come to you.

Mobile nailcare for men & women Safe for Daibetics • Special rates for Seniors By appointment only:

514.835.9519 www.colorsinmotionph2.com

Colors in Motion PH2

St. Patrick Square 6969 Côte St-Luc, Montreal Phone: 514-481-9609 Fax: 514-481-0350 Email: dulcie@stpatricksquare.com Contact: Dulcie Naimer

Amenities nearby: bus, shuttle, CLSC, pool, gymnasium, library Services: indoor parking, indoor pool, party room, exercise room, laundry rooms Units available: 1½, 3½, 4½ Pets: cats allowed Price: $700 - $960

Arnold Bennett Housing Hotline ........................................514-488-0412 Association des Residences du Quebec ........................514-526-3777 Quebec housing corporation (low rent)......................514-873-2245 Cote-des-Neiges Information on Housing ..................514-738-0101 Quebec Housing Consultation for seniors....................514-990-8841 Project Genesis: info, referral, and advocacy ...........514-738-2036 Public Works (emergencies) .......................................514-989-5268 Elder Abuse Hotline.514-489-2287 Referral Help Line for Seniors .......................................514-527-0007

Habitations Nouvelles Avenues

ROSEMONT

er

GUIDE TO APARTMENTS AND CONDOS

Jennifer Gaudo Affiliated Real Estate Agent, Century21 Vision

514-445-4488

130 logements pour retraités autonomes

Pour une belle qualité de vie !

À bon prix...

• manicures • pedicures 3 1/2, ascenseurs, planchers

(regular or spa)

de bois franc, dalle de béton, loisirs, dîners 4 services

Colors in Motion PH2 514-376-9141

6644 SOMERLED, NDG

Comfortable Condo Living at a Great Price!

Perfect, beautiful, spacious 1 bdrm condo, 1st floor, secure bldg, wheelchair access.

Across from supermarket, pharmacy & banks. 2 minutes from highways, Monkland Village, Concordia & downtown.

MAKE AN OFFER!

www.theseniortimes.com November 2008 THE SENIOR TIMES 35

laklassik@yahoo.ca

GUIDE TO RESIDENCES Apple Hill Residence 115 Hawthorne, Baie-d’Urfé Phone: 514-457-1637 Fax: 514-457-8151 Contact: Jana Cerny Capacity: 9 Care: autonomous, semi-autonomous, assisted, convalescence Security: fire alarms, ADT, 24/7 supervision Medical: doctor and nurse, regular visits Amenities nearby: CLSC, pharmacy, church Services: hairdresser, transport, pedicure Activities: exercise, games, outings, music Food: 3 meals per day Housekeeping: daily, laundry Religious services: church visits Price: $1650 - $2500

Caldwell Residences 5750 Lemieux #116, Montreal Phone: 514-737-7774 Email: caldwellresidences@qc.aira.ca Contact: Daniel Knafo Capacity: 650 Care: autonomous Security: guards, monitors Medical: CLSC services available Amenities nearby: metro, CLSC, mall, Jewish community campus Activities: animators, exercise, choir, library, discussions, outings Food: no meals Housekeeping: upon request Religious services: Jewish on site Price: according to income

Château Dollard

Château Royal

Douglas Residence Inc.

1055 Tecumseh, D.D.O. Phone: 514-685-4444 Fax: 514-685-2936 Contact: Gina Luci or Teresa Poce Care: semi-autonomous, assisted living, nursing care, respite Security: alarms, fire alarms, call bells, emergency call pendants Medical: doctor weekly, nurse RN Monday-Friday, PABS, RNAs 24/7 Hospital: 10.5 km Amenities nearby: bus, CLSC, mall Inhouse amenities: pool, gym, library, tuck shop, theatre, shuttle, bus Services: groceries, hairdresser, manicure/pedicure Activities: animator, outings, exercise, music, games Food: 3 meals per day plus 2 snacks Housekeeping: weekly, laundry facilities/included, linens/towels weekly Religious services: Catholic, Protestant, and Lutheran onsite monthly Price: $1800 - $2932

185 Thornhill, D.D.O. Phone: 416-925-9700 Fax: 416-925-3655 Contact: Varime Brova Capacity: 200 Care: autonomous, semi-autonomous, short/long term, assisted living, light care, respite Security: monitors, fire alarms Medical: doctor weekly, nurse weekly Hospital: 10 km Amenities nearby: bus, shuttle, CLSC, pharmacy, pool, gymnasium, library, mall Services: groceries, hairdresser, heat and electricity included Activities: animator, outings, exercise, music, games Food: 2 meals per day included, kosher or vegetarian if requested Housekeeping: weekly Religious services: Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, facilities nearby A/C: included Price: starting at $1700 all included

30 Brittany, T.M.R. Phone: 514-340-9777 Fax: 514-313-6730 Email: douglas.residence@gmail.com Contact: Carolyn Claeys Capacity: 80 apartments Care: autonomous Security: fire alarms Amenities nearby: bus, CLSC Hospital: 5 km Housekeeping: laundry facilities Religious services: facilities nearby Price: $636 - $818

Côte-des-Neiges Residence Château Pierrefonds

Castel Royale Melior Group Member

Foyer Valiquette 1534 Valiquette, Verdun Phone: 514-768-0739 Contact: Donna Girard Capacity: 9 Care: autonomous, light care, assisted living Security: alarms, call bells, camera Medical: doctor and nurse on call Amenities nearby: CLSC, pharmacy, hospital Services: banking, hairdresser, manicure/pedicure, cable Activities: exercise, music, games Food: 3 meals per day Housekeeping: daily, laundry included Pets: pet therapy Price: from $900

15928 Gouin W, Ste-Geneviève Phone: 514-626-2300 Fax: 514-696-8910 Email: info@chateaupierrefonds.com Contact: Monique Laplante Capacity: 63 Care: autonomous, semi-autonomous, short/long term, assisted living, light care, convalescence, respite Security: alarms, fire alarms, call bells Medical: doctor weekly, nurse twice a week Hospital: 5 km Amenities nearby: bus, CLSC, pharmacy, pool, library Services: podiatrist, hairdresser, manicure/pedicure, banking Activities: animator, outings, exercise, music, games, pet therapy and more Food: 3 meals per day Housekeeping: daily, weekly Religious services: Catholic on site, Anglican facilities nearby Pets: visitor pets welcomed Price: from $1650

5740 Cavendish, C.S.L. Phone: 514-487-5664 Fax: 514-393-9123 Capacity: 300 Care: autonomous, short/long term Security: alarms, monitors, fire alarms, call bells Medical: clinic on site, nurse aides 24/7 Hospital: 3 km Amenities nearby: metro, bus, shuttle, CLSC, pharmacy, library, mall Services: shuttle bus, milkman, hairdresser by appointment Activities: animator, outings, exercise, music, games Food: 2 kosher meals per day Housekeeping: 5 days per week Religious services: synagogue on site 36 THE SENIOR TIMES November 2008 www.theseniortimes.com

4847 Jean Brilliant, Montreal Phone: 514-731-2985 Fax: 514-344-5324 Care: autonomous, semi-autonomous, long term, assisted living Security: alarms, monitors, fire alarms Medical: doctor monthly Hospital: 3-5 km Amenities nearby: metro, bus, CLSC, pharmacy, library, mall Services: hairdresser, manicure/pedicure Activities: outings, music, games Food: 3 meals per day Housekeeping: daily, laundry included Price: from $1700

@

Visit us online theseniortimes.com senioresidences.com

Griffith McConnell 5790 Parkhaven, C.S.L. Phone: 514-482-0590 Fax: 514-482-3996 Email: l.hannough@griffith-mcconnell.ca Contact: L. Hannough Capacity: 300 Care: autonomous, semi-autonomous, short/long term, assisted living, light care, nursing care, convalescence, respite Security: alarms, monitors, fire alarms, call bells Medical: doctor 24/7, nurse 24/7 Amenities nearby: metro, bus, CLSC, pharmacy, pool, gymnasium, library, mall Services: podiatrist, physiotherapist, hairdresser, banking, manicure/pedicure Activities: animator, outings, exercise, music, games Food: 3 meals per day kosher, kosher style, vegeterian, restaurant/cafe Housekeeping: daily Religious services: all denominations on site Price: $1713 - $4672

Le Waldorf Heritage Lodge

La Résidence Lachine

48 Wall, Vankleek Hill, Ontario Phone: 613-678-2690 Fax: 613-678-6760 Contact: Executive Director Capacity: 72 Care: autonomous, semi-autonomous, short/long term, light care, nursing care, respite Security: alarms, monitors, fire alarms, call bells Medical: doctor weekly, nurse 24/7 Amenities nearby: CLSC, library, mall Services: podiatrist, hairdresser Activities: animator, outings, exercise, music, games Food: 3 meals/day Housekeeping: weekly, laundry facilities/included Religious services: United, Presbyterian, Catholic, Anglican, services monthly

1655 William McDonald, Lachine Phone: 514-637-4551 Fax: 514-637-3997 Email: residencelachine@videotron.ca Contact: Ginette Desjardins Capacity: 90 Care: autonomous, semi-autonomous, short/long term, light care, nursing care, convalescence Security: alarms, fire alarms, call bells Medical: nurse 8 hrs/day Hospital: 2 km Amenities nearby: bus, CLSC, pharmacy Services: hairdresser, manicure/pedicure Activities: outings, music, games Food: included Housekeeping: weekly, laundry Religious services: facilities nearby

7400 Côte St-Luc, C.S.L. Phone: 514-369-1000 Fax: 514-489-3968 Contact: Eileen Rabinovitch Capacity: 225 Care: autonomous, assisted living, nursing care Security: alarms, monitors, fire alarms, call bells Medical: medical director weekly, nurse 24/7 Hospital: Mount Sinai, JGH, St. Mary’s Amenities nearby: metro, bus, shuttle, CLSC, pharmacy, pool, gymnasium, library, mall Services: physiotherapist, podiatrist, groceries, hairdresser, manicure/pedicure, cleaners Activities: animator, outings, exercise, music, games Food: kosher Housekeeping: daily, laundry facilities, laundry included Religious services: synagogue A/C: included Price: $2500 - $5800

Maison Herron Melior Group Member 2400 Herron, Dorval Phone: 514-631-7288 Fax: 514-361-9208 Email: pfarber@charwellveit.ca Contact: Paula Farber Capacity: 80 (expanding, 72 new rooms) Care: short/long term, nursing care, convalescence, respite, palliative care Security: alarms, monitors, fire alarms, call bells, coded entry Medical: doctor 24/7, nurse 24/7 Services: physiotherapist, hairdresser, foot care nurse available a la carte Activities: exercise, music, games, therapeutic recreologist Food: 3 meals per day included Housekeeping: daily, weekly, laundry included Religious services: Catholic and Anglican on site

Manoir Boucherville Le Monaco

Huss Singer Residence 4078 Northcliffe, Montreal Phone: 514-489-1721 Fax: 514-487-6910 Contact: Sandra Huss Capacity: 9 Care: autonomous, semi-autonomous Security: alarms, staff 24 hours Medical: doctor monthly, nurse 7 days/week Amenities nearby: metro, bus, banks, pharmacy, pool Services: podiatrist, pedicure, hairdresser Activities: animator, drama, music, games, bingo Food: 3 meals kosher, vegetarian Housekeeping: daily laundry included Religious services: facilities nearby Price: from $980

1300 Alexis Nihon, St. Laurent Phone: 514-333-6060 Fax: 514-333-1648 Email: jboucher@residenceallegro.com Contact: Jacques Boucher Capacity: 260 Care: autonomous, semi-autonomous, short/long term, light care, convalescence, respite Security: alarms, monitors, fire alarms, call bells Medical: 2 doctors weekly, nurse 24/7 Hospital: 10 km Amenities nearby: bus, shuttle, CLSC, pharmacy, pool, library, mall Services: podiatrist, groceries, hairdresser, manicure/pedicure, banking Activities: animator, outings, exercise, music, games Food: vegetarian, restaurant/cafe Housekeeping: weekly, biweekly, monthly, laundry facilities included Religious services: Catholic chapel on site Pets: cats allowed

Les Belvédères de Lachine Melior Group Member 3000 Notre-Dame, Lachine Phone: 514-639-7776 Fax: 514-639-9081 Contact: Yvonne Bernier Capacity: 266 apartments Care: autonomous, nursing care, convalescence, respite Security: alarms, monitors, fire alarms, call bells, security at night, cameras Medical: doctor weekly, nurse 24/7 Hospital: 10 km Amenities: pharmacy, pool, gymnasium, library Services: hairdresser, banking, indoor garage, 2 terraces Activities: animator, outings, exercise, music, games, games room Food: a la carte or meal plan Housekeeping: available, laundry facilities Religious services: chapel on site, facilities nearby Pets: cats allowed Price: starting at $965

Les Résidences Soleil 549 de Verrazano, Boucherville Phone: 514-449-1516 Fax: 514-449-1978 Email: info@residencessoleil.ca Contact: Louise Biron Capacity: 194 Care: autonomous, assisted, light care, respite, convalescence Security: alarms, call bells, monitors, receptionist Medical: doctor weekly, attendant or auxiliary 24/7 Amenities nearby: CLSC, banks, pharmacy, library, mall Services: podiatrist, banking, hairdresser, groceries, shuttle Activities: animator, outings, exercise, games, pool, shuffle-board, bingo, Internet Food: 3 meals per day Housekeeping: laundry facilities monthly Religious services: Catholic on site, Protestant nearby

www.theseniortimes.com November 2008 THE SENIOR TIMES 37

Manoir Dollard-des-Ormeaux

Manoir Granby

Manoir Kirkland

Les Résidences Soleil

Les Résidences Soleil

Melior Group Member

53 Hasting, D.D.O. Phone: 514-620-4522 Fax: 514-620-4114 Email: info@residencessoleil.ca Contact: Serge Loitie Capacity: 201 Care: autonomous, assisted, light care, respite, convalescence Security: alarms, monitors, call bells, receptionist Medical: doctor monthly, attendant or auxiliary 24/7 Amenities nearby: CLSC, banks, pharmacy, library, mall, shuttle Services: podiatrist, banking, hairdresser, pharmacist, groceries Activities: animator, outings, exercise, games, pool, shuffleboard, bingo, Internet Food: 3 meals per day Housekeeping: monthly, laundry facilities Religious services: Catholic on site, Protestant nearby

235 Denison, Granby Phone: 450-378-4400 Fax: 450-378-8359 Email: info@residencessoleil.ca Contact: Hélène Adam Capacity: 322 Care: autonomous, assisted, light care, respite, convalescence Security: alarms, monitors, call bells, receptionist Medical: doctor weekly, attendant or auxiliary 24/7 Amenities nearby: CLSC, banks, pharmacy, library, mall, shuttle Services: podiatrist, banking, hairdresser, pharmacist, groceries Activities: animator, outings, exercise, games, pool, shuffleboard, bingo, Internet Food: 3 meals per day Housekeeping: monthly, laundry facilities Religious services: Catholic on site, Protestant nearby

2 Canvin, Kirkland Phone: 514-695-1253 x 202 Fax: 514-695-3777 Email: lschlosberger@groupemelior.com Contact: Linda Schlosberger Capacity: 189 aparments Care: autonomous Security: fire alarms, call bells in apts Medical: doctor weekly, nurse 5 days per week, caregiver 7 days a week (for light services) Hospital: 0.5 km Services: depanneur, grocery service weekly, hairdresser, banking, dining room Activities: indoor heated pool, pool table, aqua fitness, arts and crafts, Internet room, home theatre, recreational director Food: dining room, restaurant/cafe Religious services: Catholic and Protestant on site Price: $945 - $1930

Manoir Le Sapinois 350 Chemin Duhamel, Pincourt Phone: 514-453-0255 Fax: 514-453-0419 Contact: René Cantin Capacity: 50 Care: nursing care Security: alarms, monitors, fire alarms, call bells Medical: doctor 24/7, 6 nurses 24/7 Hospital: 10 km Services: podiatrist, hairdresser Activities: animator, outings, exercise, music, games Food: 3 meals per day included (dining room) Housekeeping: daily A/C: included Price: from $1850

Manoir Laval Manoir du Musée Les Résidences Soleil 245 Frontenac, Sherbrooke Phone: 819-822-1938 Fax: 819-348-9966 Email: info@residencessoleil.ca Contact: Jacqueline Prévost Capacity: 201 Care: autonomous, assisted, light care, respite, convalescence Security: alarms, monitors, call bells, receptionist Medical: doctor weekly, attendant or auxiliary 24/7 Amenities nearby: CLSC, banks, pharmacy, library, mall, shuttle Services: podiatrist, banking, hairdresser, pharmacist, groceries Activities: animator, outings, exercise, games, pool, shuffleboard, bingo, Internet Food: 3 meals per day Housekeeping: monthly, laundry facilities Religious services: Catholic on site, Protestant nearby

Manoir King David 5555 Trent, C.S.L. Phone: 514-486-1157 Fax: 514-486-1837 Email: amylonas@manoirkingdavid.com Contact: Anna Mylonas Capacity: 120 Care: autonomous, assisted living Security: alarms, monitors, call bells Medical: doctor weekly, nurse 7 days/week Amenities nearby: CLSC, mall, hospital Services: hairdresser, massage therapist, podiatrist, shuttle Activities: animator, outings, exercise, speakers Food: 3 meals per day Housekeeping: daily, laundry Religious services: Jewish on site Price: from $1850

Westmount Place Great location in Residential Westmount, Kensington & Metcalfe, One month Free.

Newly renovated apartments.

Granite counter tops.

24 hour doorman, camera surveillance, superior service.

On-site convenience shops and staff.

Laundry room facilities.

Roof-top deck. Storage lockers, bike racks.

Includes hot water, stove, fridge and window blinds.

Easy access to downtown, metro, bus & mall.

Near Westmount Park Units available: 1 1/2 to 5 1/2

Call Charlotte at 514-939-5529

Manoir Mont St-Hilaire

1455 de l’Avenir, Laval Phone: 450-629-0019 Fax: 450-629-0119 Email: info@residencessoleil.ca Contact: Andre Lachapelle Capacity: 724 Care: autonomous, assisted, light care, respite, convalescence Security: alarms, monitors, call bells, receptionist Medical: doctor weekly, attendant or auxiliary 24/7 Amenities nearby: CLSC, banks, pharmacy, library, mall, shuttle Services: podiatrist, banking, hairdresser, groceries Activities: animator, outings, games, pool, shuffleboard, bingo, Internet Food: 3 meals per day Housekeeping: monthly, laundry facilities Religious services: Catholic on site, Protestant nearby

Les Résidences Soleil 550 Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Mont St-Hilaire Phone: 450-467-8209 Fax: 450-467-8964 Email: info@residencessoleil.ca Contact: Marc Labelle Capacity: 320 Care: autonomous, assisted, light care, respite, convalescence Security: alarms, monitors, call bells, receptionist Medical: doctor weekly, attendant or auxiliary 24/7 Amenities nearby: CLSC, banks, pharmacy, library, mall, shuttle Services: podiatrist, banking, hairdresser, pharmacist, groceries Activities: animator, outings, exercise, games, pool, shuffleboard, bingo, Internet Food: 3 meals per day Housekeeping: monthly, laundry facilities Religious services: Catholic on site, Protestant nearby

W YN M O O R C ON D OS COCONUT CREEK FLORIDA

Country Club Lifestyle for Boomers 55 & Better!

NOW IS THE TIME & THIS IS THE PLACE! Condominium Community dedicated to the individuals who enjoy active Lifestyle. Only 6 miles to Atlantic Beach. Private 18 Hole Executive Golf Course, State of Art Theatre, Movies, over 300 Clubs, Tennis Courts, Fitness Center, Billiard/Pool Room, Business Center Computers, Library, Restaurant, Private Walking Paths, Courtesy Buses, Basketball courts, Bocce Ball Courts Shuffleboard. Condos Starting at $29,000-$180,000

CHERYL STEIN, Resident & Realtor

954.675.3700 www.WynmoorRealtor.com cherylstein@bellsouth.net FREE 1 YEAR GOLF CLUB MEMBERSHIP WITH TH IS AD (when you purchase a condo with Cheryl Stein in Wynmoor) Wynmoor Real Estate LLC

38 THE SENIOR TIMES November 2008 www.theseniortimes.com to schedule a visit

Les Résidences Soleil

Best Wishes for a Happy and Healthy Ne

Manoir Sorel Les Résidences Soleil

Manoir Pierrefonds 18465 Gouin W, Pierrefonds Phone: 514-626-6651 Fax: 514-626-6415 Contact: Sandra Abercussis Capacity: 100 Care: long term, nursing care, convalescence, respite Security: alarms, fire alarms, call bells Medical: doctor biweekly, nurse 24/7 Hospital: 5 km Services: hairdresser, manicure/pedicure Activities: animator Food: 3 meals per day Housekeeping: daily, laundry facilities Price: $3450 - $6230

71 George, Sorel-Tracy Phone: 450-742-3303 Fax: 450-742-1668 Email: info@residencessoleil.ca Contact: Roland Desrosiers Capacity: 137 Care: autonomous, assisted, light care, respite, convalescence Security: alarms, monitors, call bells, receptionist Medical: doctor weekly, attendant or auxiliary 24/7 Amenities nearby: CLSC, banks, pharmacy, mall, shuttle Services: podiatrist, manicure, hairdresser Activities: animator, outings, exercise, games, pool, shufle-board, bingo, internet Food: 3 meals per day Housekeeping: monthly, laundry facilities Religious services: Catholic onsite

Manoir St. Leonard Les Résidences Soleil 7650 Lespinay, St. Leonard Phone: 514-255-9298 Fax: 514-255-9986 Email: info@residencessoleil.ca Contact: Monique Lussier Capacity: 621 Care: autonomous, assisted, light care, respite, convalescence Security: alarms, monitors, call bells, receptionist Medical: doctor weekly, attendant or auxiliary 24/7 Amenities nearby: CLSC, banks, pharmacy, library, mall, shuttle Services: podiatrist, banking, hairdresser, pharmacist, groceries Activities: animator, outings, exercise, games, pool, shuffle-board, bingo, internet Food: 3 meals included Housekeeping: monthly, laundry facilities Religious services: Catholic onsite, Protestant nearby

Manoir Sherbrooke Les Résidences Soleil 1150 Quatre Saisons, Sherbrooke Phone: 819-822-1038 Fax: 819-822-1681 Email: info@residencessoleil.ca Contact: Andy Veilleux Capacity: 456 Care: autonomous, assisted, light care, respite, convalescence Security: alarms, monitors, call bells, receptionist Medical: doctor weekly, attendant or auxiliary 24/7 Amenities nearby: CLSC, banks, pharmacy, library, mall, shuttle Services: podiatrist, groceries, hairdresser Activities: animator, outings, exercise, games, pool, shuffle-board, bingo, internet Food: 3 meals per day Housekeeping: monthly, laundry facilities Religious services: Catholic onsite, Protestant nearby

115 Deguire, St. Laurent Phone: 514-332-3434 Fax: 514-332-8343 Email: info@residencessoleil.ca Contact: Serge Lortie Capacity: 297 Care: autonomous, assisted, light care, respite, convalescence Security: alarms, monitors, call bells, receptionist Medical: doctor weekly, attendant or auxiliary 24/7 Amenities nearby: CLSC, banks, pharmacy, library, mall, shuttle Services: podiatrist, groceries, banking, hairdresser Activities: animator, outings, exercise, games, pool, shuffle-board, bingo, internet Food: 3 meals per day Housekeeping: monthly, laundry facilities Religious services: Catholic onsite, Protestant nearby

Affordable senior living in a park setting • professional health care personnel 24 hours per day • state of the art smoke & sprinkler system • spacious main lounges & attractive outdoor patio • large elegant dining room & bar • close to shopping, churches, library & recreation • all inclusive services

For appointment to view please call 514-937-3943

15 Place Triad, Pointe Claire Phone: 514-695-6695 Fax: 514-695-7754 email: info@masterpiecereitrement.com Contact: Lifestyles Representative Care: autonomous, assisted living Medical: nurse 24/7 Amenities nearby: shuttle, pool, gymnasium, library, mall Services: hairdresser, podiatrist, spa services, manicure/pedicure Activities: animator, outings, exercise, music, games, free annual cruise Food: 3 meals per day Housekeeping: weekly, laundry facilities Religious services: non-denominational on site Pets: all pets allowed A/C: included

Montclair Residence

Manoir St. Laurent Les Résidences Soleil

Masterpiece

Manoir Westmount 4646 Sherbrooke W, Montreal Phone: 514-937-3943 Fax: 514-937-3946 Email: info@manoirwestmount.ca Contact: Gina D’Angelo Capacity: 125 Care: autonomous Security: alarms, monitors, fire alarms, call bells Medical: nurse 24/7 Amenities nearby: metro, bus, CLSC, pharmacy, library Services: podiatrist, hairdresser, manicure/pedicure, banking Activities: animator, outings, exercise, music, games Food: 3 meals/day Housekeeping: daily, laundry included Religious services: Protestant, Catholic on site and facilities nearby Price: from $1700

4413 Montclair, Montreal Phone: 514-481-5638 Fax: 514-481-2973 Email: vicky.stewart@sympatico.ca Contact: Vicky Stewart Capacity: 50 Care: assisted living Security: alarms, call bells, monitors, staff 24/7 Medical: weekly doctor, nurse 7 days/week Amenities nearby: metro, CLSC, library, shops Services: podiatrist, pharmacist, hairdresser, dentist, denturologist, manicure/pedicure Activities: animator, outings, exercise, speakers Food: 3 meals per day Housekeeping: weekly, laundry incl.

Religious services: Catholic and Protestant on site Pets: birds and rabbits Price: $1625 - $2125

QUALITY CARE FOR SEN IORS

HUSS-SINGER RESIDENCE

SINCE 1985

• Private rooms available for male & female • Government subsidized. Very reasonable • Strictly kosher home-cooked meals • Supervised by Maimonides • Quiet, secure & intimate

www.manoirwestmount.ca

4078 Northcliffe

A project of The Rotary Club of Westmount

514-489-1721 • 514-485-1267

Manoir Westmount Inc. 4646 Sherbrooke St. W., Westmount

www.theseniortimes.com November 2008 THE SENIOR TIMES 39

Pointe-aux-Trembles Les Résidences Soleil

Place Kensington 4430 Ste-Catherine W, Montreal Phone: 514-935-1212 Fax: 514-989-1009 Email: info@placekensington.com Contact: Pamela Hendy or Sylvia Zagury Capacity: 200 Care: autonomous, light care, assisted living Security: alarms, call bells, monitors, sprinklers, doorman 24/7 Medical: doctor on call, nurse 24/7 Amenities nearby: metro, CLSC, pool, plaza, MVH, RVH, JGH Services: physiotherapist, pharmacist, manicure, hairdresser, podiatrist Activities: concerts, aquafit,games Food: 3 meals per day Housekeeping: weekly, laundry facilities Religious services: Catholic, Protestant, Jewish on site Price: $2900 - $6000

13900 Notre-Dame, Pointe-aux-Trembles Phone: 514-642-2234 Fax: 514-642-5115 Email: info@residencessoleil.ca Contact: Diane Allie Capacity: 500 Care: autonomous, assisted, light care, respite, convalescence Security: alarms, monitors, call bells, receptionist Medical: doctor weekly, attendant or auxiliary 24/7 Amenities nearby: CLSC, banks, pharmacy, library, mall, shuttle Services: podiatrist, banking, hairdresser, groceries Activities: animator, outings, exercise, games, pool, shuffleboard, bingo, internet Food: 3 meals per day Housekeeping: monthly, laundry facilities Religious services: Catholic onsite, Protestant nearby

Residence Steger

SUNRISE of Beaconsfield

2450 Thimens, St. Laurent Phone: 514-337-0000 Fax: 514-334-7422 Email: maureen.russell@holidaytouch.com Contact: Maureen Russell

505 Elm, Beaconsfield Phone: 514-693-1616 Email: beaconsfield.dcr@ sunriseseniorliving.com Contact: Daniele Potvin Capacity: 101 Care: assisted, short term, respite, secure Alzheimer’s unit, memory care Security: alarms, monitors, call bells, Medical: doctor weekly, nurse 7 days/week Amenities nearby: pharmacy, gym, pool, mall Services: podiatrist, hairdresser, manicure/pedicure, physiotherapist Activities: animator, outings, exercise, speakers Food: 3 meals per day Housekeeping: weekly, laundry incl.

Religious services: various on site Pets: all pets allowed Price: based on need

Capacity: 120 Care: autonomous Security: fire alarms, call bells Amenities nearby: metro, bus, CLSC, shuttle, library, mall Services: banking, hairdresser, manicure/pedicure, groceries Activities: outings, music, exercise, computer center, animator, games etc.

Food: 2-3 meals kosher style Housekeeping: weekly Religious services: Jewish holidays, services on site Pets: all pets allowed A/C: included Price: from $1800

Residence Vic-Williams Résidence du Belvédère Place St. Moritz 1055 Cote-Vertu, St. Laurent Phone: 514-855-5552 Fax: 514-798-0649 www.placestmoritz.com Contact: Liana Irmias Capacity: 224 Care: autonomous, assisted, short/long term, memory care Security: alarms, monitors, Lifeline Medical: weekly doctor, nurse 24/7 Amenities nearby: metro, CLSC, banks, library, pharmacy, mall Services: indoor garage, banking, groceries, hairdresser, pedicure Activities: animator, outings, exercise, speakers, music, crafts, games, pool Food: 2 meals per day Housekeeping: bi-monthly, laundry available Religious services: Roman Catholic on site

10332 Belvedere, Pierrefonds Phone: 514-752-0728 Fax: 514-752-0738 Email: info@residencedubelvedere.com www.residencedubelvedere.com Contact: Christiane Lapointe Capacity: 9 Care: semi-autonomous, convalescence, mobile seniors with Alzheimer’s Security: alarms, monitors, fire alarms Medical: nurse as needed Hospital: 15 km Amenities nearby: CLSC, pharmacy, library, mall Services: all included hairdresser, manicure/pedicure Activities: as per your preference Food: 3 meals per day Housekeeping: daily, weekly, laundry included A/C: included Price: $2300

93 St-Louis, Beaconsfield Phone: 514-695-1458 Email: vicwilliams@videotron.ca Contact: Lydia Duschkanits Capacity: 9 Care: autonomous, semi-autonomous, short/long term, assisted living, light care, convalescence, respite Security: fire alarms Medical: doctor monthly, nurse monthly Amenities nearby: bus, pharmacy, CLSC, mall, library Services: hairdresser, podiatrist Activities: animator, outings, exercise, music, crafts, games, bingo Food: 3 meals per day Housekeeping: daily, laundry included Religious services: Catholic, Presbyterian, United on site A/C: included Pets: cats allowed

Société d’habitation et de développement de Montréal

Residence Maison Leduc

Residence Monkland

6190 Monkland, Montreal 4400 Westhill, Montreal Phone: 514-380-7436 Fax: 514-380-2100 Phone: 514-380-7436 Fax: 514-380-2100 Capacity: 31 Capacity: 100 Amenities nearby: Amenities nearby: Security: fire alarms Security: fire alarms metro, CLSC, metro, CLSC, Price: from $615 Price: from $615 pharmacy, mall pharmacy, mall 40 THE SENIOR TIMES November 2008 www.theseniortimes.com

SUNRISE of Dollard-des-Ormeaux 4377 St-Jean, D.D.O. Phone: 514-620-4556 Email: dollarddesormeaux.dcr@ sunriseseniorliving.com Contact: Valerie McRae Capacity: 101 Care: assisted, short/long term, respite, secure Alzheimer’s unit, memory care Security: alarms, monitors, call bells, Medical: doctor weekly, nurse 7 days/week Amenities nearby: pharmacy, gym, pool, mall Services: podiatrist, hairdresser, manicure/pedicure, physiotherapist Activities: animator, outings, exercise, speakers Food: 3 meals per day Housekeeping: weekly, laundry included Religious services: vaious on site Pets: all pets allowed Price: based on need

APARTMENTS

Residence Rodolphe Clément 5699 de la Verendrye, Montreal Phone: 514-380-7436 Fax: 514-380-2100 Capacity: 78 Amenities nearby: Security: fire alarms metro, CLSC, Price: from $615 pharmacy, mall

Carmen Choose the best with SUNRISE of Fontainebleau

Westhill Residence

50 des Chateaux, Blainville Phone: 450-420-2727 Email: fontainebleau.dcr@sunriseseniorliving.com Contact: Daniel Giguere

6332 Sherbrooke W, Montreal Phone: 514-485-3030 Fax: 514-485-2932 Contact: Mario Poliziani

Capacity: 101 Care: assisted, short/long term, respite, secure Alzheimer’s unit, memory care Security: alarms, monitors, call bells Medical: doctor weekly, nurse 7 days/week Amenities nearby: pharmacy, gym, pool, mall Services: podiatrist, hairdresser, manicure/pedicure, physiotherapist Activities: animator, outings, exercise, speakers Food: 3 meals per day Housekeeping: weekly, laundry incl.

Religious services: vaious on site Pets: all pets allowed Price: based on need

beautiful European ladies.

• Relaxing environment • Private rooms with showers • Free parking

514-483-3362

• Receipts

2110 Decarie (corner Sherbrooke)

Capacity: 18-24 Care: autonomous, semi-autonomous, short term/long term, assisted living, light care, convalescence, respite Security: monitors, fire alarms, call bells, alarms Medical: doctor consultation monthly, nurses aides 24/7 Hospital: 20-25 km Amenities nearby: metro, bus, CLSC, pharmacy, pool, library, mall Services: physiotherapist, podiatrist, hairdresser, manicure/pedicure Activities: outings, exercise, music, games Food: 3 meals per day included Housekeeping: daily, personal laundry service available, laundry included for bedding/towels only Religious services: facilities nearby A/C: included Price: $2000 - $3000

IMPORTANT NOTICE HAVE YOU GOT FREE LAUNDRY SERVICES IN YOUR SENIOR RESIDENCE? If you or your relatives have not received free of charge laundry services in your elder home, you are probably entitled to a substantial compensation, possibly more than $ 5,000.

Westmount One Résidence Wales Home 506 Route 243 North, Cleveland (Quebec) Phone: 819-826-3266 Fax: 819-826-2549 Email: info@waleshome.ca Contact: Brendalee Piironen Capacity: 185 Care: independent, light care, nursing, assisted living, Alzheimer’s unit Security: alarms, smoke detectors, call bells Medical: doctor 4 days/week, nurse 24/7, dentist, ear doctors on call Amenities nearby: CLSC, pharmacy, shops Services: podiatrist, banking, hairdresser, pedicure, re-adaptation therapist Activities: animator, outings, music, crafts, pool, painting, exercise Food: 3 meals, vegetarian Housekeeping: daily, laundry included Religious services: United, Anglican and Presbyterian on site Price: $900 - $3357

PMFS

Services Financiers

4800 Côte St-Luc Road, Montreal Phone: 514-487-8282 Fax: 514-487-1551 Email: csteers@westmountone.com Contact: Carol Steers Capacity: 128 Care: autonomous, semi-autonomous, short/long term, assisted living, light care, respite, convalescence Security: alarms, monitors, fire alarms, call bells Medical: doctor monthly, nurse 24/7 Hospital: 3 km Amenities nearby: bus, shuttle, pharmacy, gymnasium, library, metro, CLSC, pool Services: hairdresser, drugstore, depanneur Activities: animator, outings, exercise, music, games Food: 3 meals per day included Housekeeping: weekly, laundry facilities/included, daily housekeeping and laundry included for assisted living Religious services: Facilities nearby A/C: included Price: from $2650

PAUL D. MICHAEL Financial Services Inc.

www.paulmichael.net ~ pmfs@videotron.ca

To receive it, you only need to mail a form available in the courthouse, in the residences involved and at :

www.larochelleavocat.com

www.avocatcharronbl.ca

If you need help, please contact : Me Philippe Larochelle 338, St-Antoine East #300 Montréal (Quebec) H2Y 1A3 Phone : (514) 866-3003 Fax : (514) 866-2929 Email : chsld@larochelleavocat.com

Me Bernard Luc Charron 280, St-Jean St. Quebec (Quebec) G1R 1P1 Phone : (418) 204.6639 Fax : (418) 204.6689 Email : avocatcharronbl@videotron.ca

Peace of Mind For pre-retired and autonomous retired persons 3 1/2 starting at $615 4 1/2 starting at $703 5 1/2 at $792 24 hrs emergency service, laundry room, parking optional

( 514 ) 380-7436 • Résidence Monkland, 4400 West Hill, NDG • Résidence Maison Leduc, 6190 Monkland, NDG • Résidence Rodolphe Clément, 5699 de la Vérendrye, Côte-St-Paul

ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH 10-YEAR CASHABLE GIC LADDER ACCOUNTS?

Deposits are evenly split into 10 GIC terms of 1 to 10 years, and each year one term will renew and be reinvested for 10 years, allowing you to take advantage of long-term rates. For more info on rates, call Paul at:

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(serving West Islanders since 1981)

The SHDM is a non-profit municipal corporation that owns and manages thousands of competitively priced residential units.

www.theseniortimes.com November 2008 THE SENIOR TIMES 41

www.rental.shdm.org

Bridging the gap Alstonvale Boarding Kennel • Personalized care in a family environment • 24 hour surveillance • Spacious, heated and air conditioned kennels • Four daily walks, lots of love and play-time

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Robert Jones

Motivational Speaker Addiction Conflict Intervention

“What have you done today to better your life?”

514-806-9307 recoveryandhealing@hotmail.com www.recoveryandhealing.info

Tel: 514-939-7247 Fax: 514-939-2699

JOYCE BLOND FRANK B.A., B.C.L., LL.M. Avocat-Attorney

Family and Elder Law 1310 Greene Ave. Suite 660 Westmount Re - t ak in g you r d ri v in g t e s t f o r m e d i c a l r e as o n s ?

F e e l l i k e yo u n e e d a r e f r es h e r c o u rs e?

NO PROBLEM!

It may make for an unusual friendship, but the pairing of volunteer advocate Mark Cosentini and Barbara Richardson has been a hit.

“He’s a gem,” says Mrs. Richardson of her 28year old advocate.

West Island Citizen Advocacy introduced them in September of 2007 and since then Cosentini has been her chauffeur, handyman and shopping companion. For the 79-year-old widow, his practical and emotional support means that she is able to maintain her independence while still living in her own home.

“He’s an expert in a lot of things, he notices if things need to get fixed around the house and will do anything that needs to get done,” she says. “I can’t think of anyone better than him.”

The match has been beneficial to both. “Some people may feel that volunteering is a chore, but I really enjoy the time I spend with her,” says Cosentini. “I think I’ve changed, I’ve become a much more patient person.”

In addition to his weekly commitment to his elderly protégé, Cosentini volunteers with CIMOI (Centre d’Intégration Multi-Services de l’Ouest de l’Île), which helps newly arrived families adjust to life in Quebec. He also helps at the Marguerite-Bourgeoys School Board with children who have learning difficulties. “There are so many different organizations that need people, and volunteering is a constructive way of helping people out,” he says.

Richardson realizes the difficulty of holding onto a great volunteer advocate and hopes her new found friendship will continue long into the future. “He’s a good talker and great listener, I’m going to hang onto him for dear life.”

West Island Citizen Advocacy is a community non-profit organization that matches volunteer advocates with people in the community who need practical or emotional support, whether elderly, intellectually or physically challenged, socially isolated or experiencing mental health

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problems. Support can include daily assurance phone calls, social visits, accompaniment to appointments, or help with grocery shopping and errands.

For more information about becoming a volunteer advocate, please call West Island Citizen Advocacy at 514-694-5850 or 514-631-9151. There is a match waiting for you.

Letter to the editor Dear Editor, I was deeply moved by your article “What I learned one weekend in September” (Senior Times, Oct. 2008) about the sudden illness of your daughter Molly (as talented a travel writer as her mother) and her experience in Santa Cabrini Hospital emergency. Thank God for her quick recovery. I hope she will never get the “spasms” (or whatever it was) again and continue to produce many more travel narratives.

— Jan Weryho

Call now 514-271-8306

Meet a Friend

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42 THE SENIOR TIMES November 2008 www.theseniortimes.com Côte des Neiges

GLORIA - Caring lady, 65, likes dining out, good wine, movies, traveling. Does aerobics and walks several times weekly, seeking an affectionate, sincere, outgoing, fun-loving, educated gentleman for companionship and more, to share the good things in life with. West Island resident preferred.

To contact Margaret or Gloria at Meet a Friend, address your letter and a recent photo to Margaret @ Meet a Friend or Gloria @ Meet a Friend, c/o The Senior Times, 4077 Decarie Blvd, Montreal, QC, H4A 3J8.

Would you like to Meet a Friend? Send your bio of 25–30 words and a $20 cheque to the above address or call Shannon at 514-484-5033, or email your bio to editor@theseniortimes.com and call to have us bill your credit card. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and brevity. All contact info is kept private and all responses are forwarded from our office.

Protection of the elderly against exploitation Legal Ease Joyce Blond Frank There are times when seniors are taken advantage of even by members of their own family, by friends, as well as by strangers pretending to be friends. In consequence, the law has made a special effort to protect them. Families, therefore, have a moral duty to protect their elderly members, and a legal one.

This protection is provided by legislation in the form of the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms which allows an elderly person who has suffered abuse or exploitation to complain to the Human Rights Commission and sue for damages.

Exploitation legally includes all kinds of abuse of an elderly person by someone who is stronger or more dominant, if this dominant person makes a profit or receives a benefit from the abuse. For example, damages have been awarded to the abused where a physician borrowed money from a 79 year old patient; where the owner of a residence for the elderly borrowed money from a 90 year old resident who had no memory and was physically and psychologically dependent; and where a salesman deliberately sold defective wheelchairs and other orthopedic aids to those considered vulnerable.

The right to protection and security provided by law to the elderly has been held to override the rights to which others may be entitled. This is what happened in the case of a couple, 87 and 95 years old, who owned a duplex, lived in one section and rented the other. They required a certain amount of care. Neither had any family in Montreal and so they had to hire and rely on outside

people care for them. They wanted to house these helpers in that section of the duplex which was rented, but the tenant objected to giving up occupancy of the premises.

Under Quebec law residential property can only be repossessed by the landlord for use by the owner himself, his children, or other family members whom he supports. The court decided that the tenant's premises were needed to replace the family who, were they present, would be obliged to ensure that the couple was properly cared for.

Because the premises were required for their protection and security, the provisions of the Charter superseded the provisions of the Civil Code and the request to retake possession of the premises was granted.

In yet another case, a 47-year-old waitress worked at the residence in which an 81-year-old with Alzheimer’s lived. Their relationship flourished for two-and-a half years during which they spent his monthly income. He bought her expensive jewelry and a car, signed a mortgage for a house in which he never lived, and saw his assets diminish by about $110,000.

Two of the three judges who heard the case in appeal held that the Charter protects the elderly against all forms of exploitation, physical, psychological, social and moral, regardless of whether or not the person consents to the abusive acts. They found that, during the relationship, the defendant's faculties were diminished due to Alzheimer's and ordered the waitress to pay damages in excess of $66,000.

Consequently, where there is a significant imbalance between the vulnerable person and the other person resulting in disastrous consequences to the vulnerable party and benefit to the other, damages will be awarded to the victim.

THE WESTSIDE CLINIQUE MÉDICALE OUESTSIDE * NOW LOCATED * at

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6010 Sherbrooke St. W. (bet. Hampton & Belgrave) Cell: 514 952-8891 • Tel. & Fax: 514 481-8891

BE PREPARED FOR THE Alzheimer Groupe (A.G.I.) Inc. offers ongoing SUPPORT GROUPS for spouses and PSYCHO-EDUCATIONAL GROUPS for adult children, ACTIVITY PROGRAMS, ART THERAPY and MUSIC PROGRAM for individuals in the early to mid-stages of Alzheimer Disease and Related Disorders.

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For further details, please call 514-485-7233

Foyer Valiquette

FLU SEASON If you are 60 years old and over or have a chronic illness,

PLAN FOR A FLU SHOT! Vaccination starts November 6 th.

Centre de santé et de services sociaux de l’Ouest-de-l’Île West Island Health and Social Services Centre

A friendly homey environment for seniors

1534 Valiquette Verdun • 24 hour Supervised Care • Doctor Visits

• Well-balanced Meals

• Social Activities • Private Rooms • Outdoor Garden Activities

Dian & Jindra Tel: 514-768-0739

Call to make an appointment: Monday to Friday : 8 am to 8 pm

514-620-5554 (Only one number for the CLSC Pierrefonds and CLSC Lac-Saint-Louis) Medicare card compulsory

www.theseniortimes.com November 2008 THE SENIOR TIMES 43

Is your apartment too cold?

Susan J. Sokol, J.D. Many people think that a landlord is only required to heat an apartment during a certain time of year. This is not true! If the lease provides that the landlord is responsible for heating, the temperature must be maintained at 21 degrees Celsius all year round.

For those who believe that their apartment is too cold, there are many steps that can be taken. The first is to measure and record the actual temperature of the apartment. The Rental Board recommends that a person check the temperature in his/her apartment by placing the thermometer in the centre of a room, 1 metre above the floor (for example, by placing the thermometer on a chair).

It is also recommended that the temperature be measured indoors and outdoors so that the two can be compared.

After finding out how cold the apartment is, the next step would be to advise the landlord. Sending a letter by registered mail (and keeping a copy) can help a tenant prove to the Rental Board and to the City Inspectors that the landlord was in-

formed of the problem, in case this later becomes necessary. If the problem continues, a tenant should call in the City Inspectors, file an application with the Rental Board, or both.

To file a complaint with the City Inspectors, the tenant should make another copy of the letter and mail or fax it to the borough Division des permis et inspections, with a cover letter stating that the apartment is still cold despite the fact the landlord was notified. The inspectors will then contact the landlord and ask him or her to take care of the problem. Next, the City will mail the tenant a form letter to find out if the problem is fixed. The tenant must complete the form letter and return it to the City Inspectors. The inspectors will then schedule an inspection of the building.

To find out how to contact your local City Inspectors office, call the 311 Montreal information line.

At the same time, it is also possible to file an application with the Rental Board. To start a case, the tenant can make another copy of the same letter and take it to the Rental Board office with a copy of the proof of registered mailing.

The clerk helps applicants complete the paper-

work at the Rental Board. On the application, the tenant can ask the Rental Board to order the landlord to provide sufficient heat, to order a rent reduction, ot to force the landlord to pay for space heaters to heat the apartment until the problem is fixed, etc.

The Rental Board is at Olympic Village, Wing D, 5199 Sherbrooke East, Unit 2095.

Because the Rental Board can take a very long time to schedule hearings for these kinds of cases, if the situation is urgent, other actions may need to be taken in the meantime. If the apartment is freezing cold with no heat at all, a tenant can try to go to the police as well as to the City Inspectors, who may contact the landlord personally about the problem. In addition, a tenant in this situation who files an application with the Rental Board should state that the situation is very urgent, and ask that the case be expedited. If, in an extreme case, it becomes necessary to abandon an apartment, it is important to first have the City Inspectors visit the premises and witness the problem. This will help in case the landlord later tries to hold the tenant responsible for the rest of the lease.

Housebound seniors can stay active Craig Cormack Icy roads make walking treacherous for seniors during the winter months. Many of you find yourselves housebound and lacking the outdoor activity you get easily in better weather.

But staying in shape at home is possible by doing a few targeted exercises. Pump up your health with a little determination and a small investment in time and equipment.

Strength, stamina, balance and flexibility are the cornerstones of any health program. As you age you may lose strength, balance and some flexibility in the extremities and joints. You may find yourself easily winded because you don’t get enough cardio training.

Strength exercises usually consist of resistance training using weights, floor exercises and swimming or water aerobics. Basic leg lifts using leg weights (which can be purchased at Canadian Tire) are good training for the quadriceps.

Dumbbells can also be used to strengthen your arms (biceps). Exercise elastics (used in Pilates)

are useful for resistance training.

To improve stamina a treadmill excellent choice, however a more economical alternative is to purchase a rebounder which is a small trampoline. According to NASA rebounding is 68% more efficient than jogging. There are many benefits to bouncing up and down which include: fighting fatigue, relieving neck, back and head pain, improving blood circulation and oxygen flow and promoting weight loss.

To work on improving your balance try the following exercise.

Stand perpendicular to a kitchen chair with its back facing you. Hold on to the back of the chair with your right hand for support.

Make sure your feet are side by side and a shoulder-width distance apart. Advance your left foot ahead by two feet.

Transfer your weight by pushing your right heel down into the floor and shifting your weight over to your left leg (make sure you bend your left knee). Do not lift your right heel during the transfer.

Push down on your big left toe back through

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Bring us right to your door, every month of the year.

First Class Mail! • 1 year = 11 Monthly issues plus Annual Residence & Resource Directory Name: Address: City: Prov: Postal Code: Tel: Please make cheque, or money order payable to: or THE SENIOR TIMES or pay by

THE SENIOR TIMES 4077 Decarie Blvd. Montreal QC H4A 3J8 Tel : 514 484-5033 • Fax: 514 484-8254 THE SENIOR TIMES November 2008 www.theseniortimes.com

Call 514-939-7247

44

ONLY

your left heel and transfer the weight back to your right foot. Repeat this weight transfer movement a number of times.

Repeat weight shifting on the other leg.

To boost upper body flexibility, try this exercise.

Start with your feet together. Interlace your fingers together and stretch upward by pushing your palms up to the ceiling. Do this for 3 times and then relax.

Always warm up before you start an activity and if you feel pain or you are out of breath, take a rest. Don’t over do it and don’t forget to cool down after you exercise.

If you are experiencing any health problems such as: arthritis, heart or circulatory disease, kidney disease, lung disease or osteoporosis, or have not exercised in over a year, consult your physician before starting an exercise program.

Once you have been cleared for exercise keep in mind some basics: drink a lot of water, wear comfortable clothes and proper footwear.

A few good exercises are all you need to stay in shape. Look into making them part of your daily routine.

Le Concierge du Coin The Caretaker Near You

514-489-9882

• Clean up fallen leaves • Install outside winter carpeting • Snow removal • Flushing radiators • Help seniors with groceries • Care for pets, water plants • Repairs & renovations

N.D.G. & WESTMOUNT ONLY WWW.CDUC.BIZ TIME TO PICK-UP LEAVES

A mango, a cup of coffee, and a carrot Flavour Guy Barry Lazar Adam Leith Gollner wants to make the case for mangoes. Gollner is the author of The Fruit Hunters, a wonderfully bizarre voyage through the realms of those obsessed with fruit. The book is a great read – how many of us will travel to the Seychelles in search of the Lady Fruit? Gollner takes us there and a dozen other places we’re unlikely to visit, all in search of a nice piece of fruit!

Gollner, a Montrealer, was back in town recently, speaking at a public meeting sponsored by the Quebec Writers’ Federation. I was the moderator and one person asked about the current movement toward eating local food. Some have described this as the 100-mile diet, but it’s not that trendy. 50 years ago most food came from local farmers. No one had much of a choice.

Now we have options. If I buy cheese from the Charlevoix, it means that my money stays here rather than going to Provence. Ditto for Quebec versus New Zealand lamb, and fruit harvested from Chateauguay Valley orchards instead of hauled in from Florida.

The Flavourguy is willing to pay a little more for food that’s local and likely fresher and tastier. Quebec garlic has a sharp sweet zest. Chinese garlic reminds me of last night’s bad breath.

But then along comes Gollner. He agrees that buying locally has its benefits but argues that it poses problems. As an example, he offers mangoes.

If I’m shopping for dessert, I’ll probably skip the mangoes and spend my grocery money on something local like Quebec apples, now available year round. But Gollner asks us to think about the political ramifications of only buying locally. He reminds us that Haiti, which is a banker’s note away from bankruptcy, has only one decent export crop left – mangoes, which he says are delicious.

And this makes me reconsider how I shop. No matter how much I buy locally, I am not going to stop having my morning tea or coffee. It will be a long time before global warming means that I can buy these from a Quebec producer. So, already I’m willing to compromise. Actually Haiti does have one other major food export. It’s coffee. So, as I seek out Haitian food products, I’m helping to

hold a fractured nation together.

Gollner brings common sense to the 100-mile diet. He’s urging us not to go overboard. Other countries depend upon us too. The 100-mile diet is great at motivating us to support local food producers but, as with everything, sensibility and moderation are equally important as we push our carts through the supermarket. Buy locally when it makes sense but think globally and look for food that tastes great, wherever it’s from.

A propos local food, I was given a foot-long, two-inch-thick carrot by a farmer at the Jean Talon Market the other day. “Cook it in the oven,” he said. I set the oven to 350°F, brushed the carrot lightly with olive oil and loosely folded it in foil. I then did the same thing with a dozen small onions. After 45 minutes, they were sublime.

I’m going to be doing a lot of vegetables this way from now on: broccoli, cauliflower, beets, sweet potatoes. It’s easier and tastier than boiling or steaming and needs much less oil or butter than sautéing or stir frying. Best of all, if I forget them for bit, they may get a little softer but the flavour will still be intense.

You can reach Barry Lazar at flavourguy@theseniortimes.com.

Deli chronicler speaks Sunday, November 16 Montreal-based documentary filmmaker Garry Beitel will speak at Shaare Zedek Men’s Club, 5205 Rosedale. Beitel’s recent film Chez Schwartz is the story of Montreal’s legendary deli. He is now making a documentary about Josh Dolgin aka Socalled, who fuses hiphop, funk, and klezmer.

Info: 514-484-1122 ÉPICERIE FINE

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Delicious Delights Home Cooked Meals Tired at the end of the day? No longer able to cook for yourself?

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Each meal consists of: 1 main course, side dish(es) & dessert Senior price: $10.00 per meal Regular price: $12.50 per meal FREE Delivery/Large Portions Prices vary for catered parties.

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Fast & Reliable Delivery in CDN, Westmount, Outremont & TMR

Le Marché du village makes life easier by delivering your order right to your door. We guarantee the produce to be as fresh as if you had chosen it yourself.

Telephone orders including delivery, $3.25, in store orders

Order by telephone from Monday to Saturday, 8:30 to 4:30

Your grocer so close by Butcher, Fruits & Vegetables, Bakery, Prepared Meals, Loto, Telephone Cards

www.theseniortimes.com November 2008 THE SENIOR TIMES 45

Veggie takeout never the same twice Sharonne Cohen

ANANCY 6587 Somerled, Montreal

2

Real Jamaican Cooking Bring your own Wine

1

for Purchase one meal and get the 2nd meal of equal or lesser value FREE; valid Mon- Fri, before 6pm, dining room only Expires Nov. 30, 2008

Tel: 514-486-2629 Reception Hall • Fully Licensed Extended Lunch Menu Monday to Friday till 5:30 pm

You may have passed Santé-Vous Bien walking through Monkland Village and never noticed it, but it’s a location worth checking out. This mother-daughter establishment, run by Gigi Cohen and her daughter Jessy, serves great vegetarian and vegan food that will satisfy those familiar with the cuisine, and surprise those still skeptical of its capability to be made delicious.

On a crisp autumn afternoon my companion and I took advantage of these last beautiful days to sit at one of the patio tables and sample two dishes: quinoa with sun-dried cranberries and toasted walnuts, and tofu with noodles and marinated vegetables in a tangy peanut butter and ginger sauce. Quinoa and other grains often

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Fire side 4759 Van Horne (near Victoria)

514-737-5576

Sun. - Thurs. 11 am - 11 pm Fri. - Sat. 11 am - midnight FOR TAKEOUT & RESERVATIONS:

514-731-6455 5365 des Jockeys

N E W A D M I N I ST R AT I O N

Decarie & Jean Talon

get a bad rap for being boring and bland, as does tofu, but these were filled with many flavour surprises.

Cooking is Gigi’s creative outlet, and her passion.

“There are no set recipes, and no dish is ever exactly the same,” she animatedly explained to us. “I used to paint when I was a little girl – I loved expressing myself creatively. Now the kitchen is my canvas.” She and Jessy offer an ever-changing variety of vegan and vegetarian meals, including pastas, soups, salads, quiches, tofu, vegetable patties, muffins, cakes, cookies and energy balls.

Everything comes in 3 container sizes for takeout, and is made daily from scratch. A speciallymarked shelf offers a variety of half-price day-old dishes. Our sampling proved they are still fresh and delicious.

In addition to cooking these delights, Gigi and Jessy offer a catering service and prepare made-toorder food for specific needs, such as nutritional juices for people on a temporary liquid diet, or dishes adapted to those with diabetes or food sensitivities or post-surgical dietary restrictions.

Santé-Vous Bien is the only establishment of its kind in the area. It’s primarily takeout but there’s seating inside if you can’t help yourself and have to eat on the spot.

Santé-Vous Bien opens 10-7 weekdays and 10-6 on weekends at 5568 Monkland, between Second Cup and Ben & Jerry’s.

Info: 514-487-7575

BAC K TO O R I G I N A L R EC I P E

2356 Lucerne

R E S TA U R A N T

corner Côte de Liesse Highway 40

S O UV L AK I Start your day the healthy way Breakfasts $5.25 Omelettes $7.20 Luncheon Specials 11am–4pm $8.95 Nightly Dinner Specials $9.95 +

+

A warm Greek experience

+

+

Mon–Sat: noon–10 pm Sun: 4 pm–10 pm

Fresh fish daily

SENIOR 25 % DISCOUNT

DISCOUNT

514 227-0505

Monday & Tuesday after 4:30pm (min $10.95)

•

514 227-0606

6544 Somerled

Reservations or Take out Steamed Pudding 5 14 - 73 5 - 19 11 is back $3.50

Come Discover The Culinary Tuscan Tradition of Family Dining

Breakfast • Lunch • Dinner • Dessert & Coffee

••••••••••

I TA L I A N C U I S I N E

••••••••••

Ristorante

Carpaccios RESTAURANT

La cuisine barbeque du sud

DAILY LUNCH SPECIALS Mon - Fri $6.95 & up Includes Chef’s Soup of the Day Coffee and Tea 3 857 D e c a r i e B lvd . corner N D.G. Ave.

5 1 4 - 4 8 7- 5 0 6 6

-

BAR

7333 Newman, LaSalle 514-366-0999

TUSCANY GRILL Cucina Italiana • Fully Licenced Family portions of Salads, Pasta & Chicken

Book early for your special events Access to FREE wireless Internet

Come home to Ristorante Carpaccios & celebrate!

Catering & Delivery

5525 Côte-St-Luc Rd 514 484-7525 3800 St-Jean Blvd 514-626-5757

46 THE SENIOR TIMES November 2008 www.theseniortimes.com

WE CATER NOW! www.carminecatering.com

514-366-1777 All week from Monday to Sunday Valid at Ristorante Carpaccios in LaSalle only Until Nov 30/08 Must bring coupon

SPECIAL 20% OFF

Must Reserve (can not be combined with any other coupons or promotions)

Del Friscos an assuredly class act Adam Desaulniers DDO’s Del Friscos brings a chic urban feel to Italian American dining on the West Island.

On setting foot inside, refined surroundings inspire immediate confidence in the experience to come, in a sleek and airy space featuring high ceilings that let in an exceptional amount of daylight at lunchtime, bouncing off brilliant white linens gracing every table like fresh unblemished snow.

Fresh-baked round crusty buns come with a little show beforehand,

olive oil and balsamic vinegar artfully dispensed on the plate and then jiggled up in the air so vigorously it’s hard not to brace oneself for a spattering. But as with everything in the establishment, it’s relaxed and self-assured. The service bears special mention as not merely unobtrusive, but professional and sophisticated.

Easily overlooked, the house salad is clearly designed to raise expectations, not as a typical afterthought – nary a trace of iceberg lettuce, cabbage, or carrot, but a tour de force of fancy greens, translucently sliced radishes, julienne cucumbers and

tomatillos competing for attention.

Not many salads in life stick out in your memory but this one will.

The rack of lamb, falling off the bone in a meaty teepee with a memorable side of asparagus and yellow peppers, is a recommended pick, and

the exemplary wine selection ensures something to please the palate of every guest. For outings that have to go just right, it’s an unbeatable choice for putting your mind at ease.

Del Friscos is at 3237 des Sources.

Info: 514-683-4444 or delfriscos.ca

Offer expires Nov 30, 2008 p l us ta x e s

PIZZA AU FOUR À BOIS Wood oven pizza

$

8.80

plus taxes

“ Y OU R L U N C H H OU R I S N ’ T T H E ON LY T I M E F OR QU I Z N OS”

Table Table d’hôte d’hôte

Très Joyeux our Very Happy H

5à8 5 to 8

) redi d n e au v y) a ( lundi d i r F ay to d n o M (

2434419

77 jours jours // Semaine Semaine Days // Week Week 77 Days

FREE SANDWICH*

*Buy a 6” sub, a chip and a 20oz drink and get a 6” sub of the same or less value for free.

Del Friscos

Offer valid Monday to Friday after 5 p.m. and weekends any time. Offer expires December 07, 2008. *This coupon must be presented and surrendered at the time of ordering.

One coupon per customer per visit. May not be combined with any other offer or coupon.

Taxes are not included. Void if copied, transferred and where prohibited by law.

No substitutions. No cash value. Valid only at Quiznos Cavendish.

Creative Italian American

3237, boul. des Sources, DDO T. 514 683-4444 • F. 514 683-3848 www.delfriscos.ca

QU I Z N OS CAVENDISH 6528 St Jacques W. 514 489 3462

HOUSE SUPER SPECIAL

CRE TH E I N

11” Submarine

DI BLE

Steak or Pepperoni or Vegetarian

LSim*ited time A I C E P S day * L P ETuR SU • Wednes y a d s e day •

e c a l p t s fa k a re B 1 # r u o y e as • THE BEST IN c n i v ro P e l e B La g n ti o v r fo u Thank yo TOWN n Every Mo

START YOUR DAY AT 5:30 WITH A SUMPTUOUS

La Belle Province BREAKFAST 6752 ST. JACQUES W. 514-481-8114

with 16 oz Pepsi

• 2 steamed hot-dog • Poutine • 16 oz. Pepsi

with 16 oz Pepsi

www.theseniortimes.com November 2008 THE SENIOR TIMES 47

Photo: Triviaking

Nikki Yanofsky at ORT Gala At the age of ten, when most kids are online checking out the latest teen idol, Nikki Yanofsky was discovering the magic of Ella Fitzgerald and listening to jazz classics like It Don’t Mean A Thing and A Tisket, A Tasket.

Four years later, just past her 13th birthday, the singer was in a recording studio with Grammy Award-winning producer Tommy LiPuma and some of L.A.’s top session musicians, brilliantly scatting her way through Nikki signing autographs Lady Ella’s classic Airmail Special for

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Services Financiers Averton Inc. Averton Financial Services Inc.

Agostino Iermieri, B Comm. Financial Security Advisor T 514.242.6822 F 514.630.7678 ago@avertonfs.com 3333 Côte-Vertu Blvd • Bureau 810 • Saint-Laurent

Verve Records’ all-star collection We All Love Ella: Celebrating The First Lady Of Song. Nikki more than held her own with the legendary artists on the album including Michael Buble, k.d. lang, Diana Krall, Natalie Cole, Etta James, Queen Latifah, Linda Ronstadt and Gladys Knight.

Nikki performed at the Montreal Jazz Fest in 2006 and 2007, selling out a four-night run at Place des Arts. After rehearsing with Nikki, jazz pianist Oliver Jones raved: “Jazz is alive and well in Canada!”

Over the past 18 months, Nikki has made numerous television and radio appearances in English and French, including documentaries on CBC and CTV. She has been the subject of countless magazine and newspaper profiles, including full page feature articles in the Globe and Mail, the Gazette, and La Presse. She has sung the national anthems at Montreal Canadiens’ hockey games and at a Lakers game at the Staples Center in L.A. Since January 2008 Nikki has toured with Marvin Hamlisch, and the two are scheduled to take the stage in Montreal at the ORT Gala November 16.

Marvin Hamlisch’s music is notable for its versatility and substance. As a composer, Hamlisch has won virtually every major award that exists: three Oscars, four Grammys, four Emmys, a Tony and three Golden

Globe awards. His groundbreaking show A Chorus Line received the Pulitzer Prize.

He is the composer of more than 40 film scores including his Oscar-winning score and song for The Way We Were and his adaptation of Scott Joplin’s music for The Sting, which won him a third Oscar. His prolific output of scores for films include original compositions and/or musical adaptations for Sophie’s Choice, Ordinary People, Three Men and a Baby, Save the Tiger and others.

Hamlisch was Musical Director and arranger of Barbra Streisand’s 1994 concert tour of the U.S. and England as well as of the television special, Barbra Streisand: The Concert, for which he received two of his Emmys.

Hamlisch holds the position of Principal Pops Conductor with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He is also the Pops Conductor for the National Symphony and San Diego Symphony Orchestra.

Hamlisch is a graduate of both Juilliard and Queens College. He believes in the power of music to bring people together. “Music can make a difference. There is a global nature to music, which has the potential to bring all people together,” he says.

ORT’s 25th Anniversary Benefit Gala is at Place des Arts on Sunday, November 16. For reservations, call 514-481-2787.

e Little Prince comes to Geordie It’s not by chance that Antoine StExupéry’s The Little Prince has been translated into 180 languages and sold 80 million copies worldwide.

Written in 1943 and illustrated by the author, the slim little volume is a carte-de-route along the way of life, keeping cynicism at bay and preventing the hardening of the soul. “All grownups were once children – though few of them remem-

Try Comfort Keepers in-home service and experience the difference a well-trained sympathetic, professional care-giver can make. *Minimum 3 hours * Discount applies only to initial service and first time clients.

48 THE SENIOR TIMES November 2008

ber it,” wrote St-Exupéry in his dedication.

From November 28 to December 7, Geordie Productions brings this timeless tale for all ages to life.

For grandchildren, an introduction to the play is well accompanied by a copy of the book as part of the treat, to make the magic of this production last a lifetime.

Info: 514-845-9810

November 2008 THE SENIOR TIMES 49

Summer Times and Places Barbara Moser

The Dimoska Family

Strolling along the boardwalk in Pogradeci

A long walk — and a lift — from Pogradeci to Macedonia Our congenial host at the Parlimenti Hotel in the lake, where the water looked clearer, and Irwin Tirana drove us in his slightly worn Mercedes- jumped in. One of four sturdy soldiers-onBenz (almost everybody drives one in Albania) to furlough in a neighbouring sailboat, hearing us a lot where mini-buses were filling up with conversing in English, begged to interrupt. passengers bound for Pogradeci, a reThe conversation continued until after sort region on the shores of Lake two of the lads had boosted Irwin onto Orhid, a lake shared with Macedoour boat, nearly tipping me over. nia. We started out on a good road.

Irwin’s physical condition, being what Suddenly the driver made a u-turn, it is — chess, jazz, wine, pizza, lengthy drove back to where we started and books — made it impossible for him took a road that re-aligned my internal to do it on his own. organs. It seemed to go on forever.

We spent the afternoon treating the five Grandma Once we were back on pavement, the drive soldiers to ice cream, beer and coffee. The Engwas uneventful and hot. We followed a winding lish speaker, translating for his friends as he spoke, road around a mountain. For the queasy, it was complained bitterly of Albanian corruption. His harrowing. We stopped halfway (after 2 hours) at parents, farmers, had no money to send him to a roadside resto where the owner tried to stiff us university so he was conscripted and hates every 10 euro for two pieces of cheese, bread and a sim- minute of it. He told us that rich parents pay to get ple salad. We eventually settled on 500 lek ($6), their children through university. which according to us included a hefty tip.

We spent Sunday wandering along the bustling Once in the Pogradeci region, we almost stopped 3 kilometer boardwalk. I was saddened by the at the Lunhidas Hotel, described in the guide book Gypsy mother with toddlers begging on the we’d purchased in Tirana as a “tourist centre” with boardwalk. Making a quick detour I returned swimming pool. We noticed that here, 10 kilome- with pastries, which the kids grabbed as if they ters out of town, the lake looked crystal clear. But hadn’t eaten in days. it was too far from the centre and we always stay We spent the afternoon on the terrace of our where the action is. Our driver dropped us off at hotel viewing the pier in the sunset drinking Marthe first place on the hotel strip in town. We liked tini and Rossi and playing chess. Monday mornthe looks of the hotel and the price, $34 Cdn for a ing, while sipping cappuccino, we asked — two modern room with balcony overlooking the lake. women–professors from a nearby university and The bed however could have used fewer metal rods. quizzed them about the soldier’s reports. They We strolled along the boardwalk and decided to claimed that nobody takes seriously the universirent a paddleboat ($2.50 Cdn an hour). The odor ties where a diploma can be bought. We also of excrement was too strong to go swimming near quizzed them about how to get to Macedonia. It the shore so we paddled out toward the middle of sounded simple: “Get a cab to the border, five kilometers away. Then get out and walk across. There will be cabs waiting on the other side to take you to Orhid, Macedonia’s lake resort.”

We got out of the cab, said goodbye to Albania, and walked 100 meters to the friendly Macedonian border police. They instructed us, in sign language, to walk ahead, either 30 or 300 meters (I’m not sure which) indicating there would be taxis.

We walked and walked and walked. No sidewalks. No cars. No buses. Just a two lane highway.

I told Irwin I wanted to go back. “I don’t go back,” and “It’s uphill,” were his quirky replies. I was worried. We were in the middle of nowhere in the mid-day heat with our knapsacks on wheels. No food. Little water. After 30 minutes, a modern red Irwin playing chess at our hotel in Pogradeci jeep came rolling down the highway. Instinctively, 50 THE SENIOR TIMES November 2008 www.theseniortimes.com

20 minutes past the border. Where are those cabs?

we put out our thumbs.

Our savior stopped and we asked “Ohrid?” He invited us in, threw our bags in the back and started to drive — and drive and drive. He spoke no English, French, Spanish, German, or Hebrew, but we managed to convey we were Canadians. He called his wife on his cell and she told me in perfect English that he would gladly drive us to the bus station to catch a bus to Skopja, the capital.

We drove through a touristy, more sophisticated version of Pogradec, called Ohrid and stopped at a large bus station, where he insisted on purchasing the tickets in Denar. We returned the amount in Euro to him later. Then he motioned for us to get back in the car. We had no idea why but by this time he felt like a long lost cousin so we climbed in knowing our bus would leave from the station in half an hour. He drove faster now, obviously heading for somewhere. After 10 minutes he stopped abruptly and turned into a house with a small porch. Mr. Dimoska was taking us home — and we would meet the bus across the road from his house on its way to Skopja.

The Dimoska family is in the construction business and lives in a three storey house their father built. Fiona and the children, Victoria and Michael greeted us in English. Victoria and her cousin were playing with the new kitten. We posed for pictures, and sampled Fiona’s homemade blueberry juice and Turkish coffee. Then we hugged the entire family including the grandma, all of whom had graciously welcomed us to Macedonia. We gave the kids some Canadian souvenirs, and crossed the highway to the bus stop with Fiona, who said she was sorry we were leaving so soon. But we’d had our fill of “resorts” and wanted some big city life.

So on to Skopja we journeyed.

than For Mr. Fraser, it was more

a harmonica.

es. ll always sit next to his ash wi t tha e on d an r, he fat m his It was a treasured gift fro Opting for cremation rtant and personal decision. er another is an impo found respect that Choosing one kind of urn ov one. It is with the most pro ery ev for ing an me t en fer cess. is a choice that has a dif out the entire planning pro gh ou thr u yo ny pa om acc we pledge to ious moment at a time.

Honouring life, one prec 8 735-1361 For more details, call 1 88 .org. or visit www.cimetierenddn

www.theseniortimes.com November 2008 THE SENIOR TIMES 51